Two groups of students were honored at the April 9 meeting of the Elkhart Board of School Trustees. The three winners of the annual Bully Prevention Bookmark Contest were recognized, along with an Elkhart Area Career Center student who turned the bookmarks into a Bully Prevention calendar. Also, a group of Pinewood fifth graders were lauded for their architectural and engineering skills.

The winners of the bookmark contest are Kennedy Stewart of Cleveland Elementary School, grades K-3; Amelia Redding of Riverview Elementary School, grades 4-6; and Hannah Quinn of Central High School, grades 7-12. Their bookmarks were chosen from thousands of entries submitted throughout the district. The bookmarks will be distributed to all students attending Elklhart Community Schools. The annual project is funded by Teachers Credit Union. Yekaterina (Kathy) Udovenko, a senior advertising design student at the Career Center, was recognized by the board for the calendar she produced that incorporates many of the bookmark entries. The calendar is being published at the EACC and will be available for distribution soon.  Students in Phyllis Herczeg's fifth-grade high ability classroom at Pinewood Elementary School displayed the variety of bridges they constructed for a class project on bridge building.

Bully prevention artists include, front row from left, Kathy Udovenko, Amelia Redding, Hannah Quinn, and Kennedy Stewart. Their certificates were presented by Susan Daiber and Mary Yoder Holsopple

The Pinewood bridge builders include, from left, Jeremy Espinoza, Neil Terrell,   Joseph Gard, Carter Hazzard, Michael Huang, teacher Phyllis Herczeg, and                                     Patrick Petersen

The project combined reading, writing, science and math as the students learned about the physics of bridges. Students read about, constructed, and tested seven types of bridges: a basic beam, truss, cantilever, bascule, arch, suspension and cable-stayed. The students then researched a real-world bridge and reported their findings to the class in a power-point presentation.   Also at the April 9th meeting, the 2013 Hall of Fame Awards were presented. Memorial High School physics teacher John Taylor is the Elkhart Teacher of the Year. Jacquie Rost, Memorial's student activities director, and Memorial's Jackie Perry, head custodian, are the Certified and Non-Certified Support Employee of the Year, respectively.  Read more about the winners here.