Recent must-read education stories you may have missed in the Bitterroot

While we didn’t get much snow this February, there was a wintery mix of education stories from Missoula to the Bitterroot.

Here are some recent articles worth revisitng:

Hamilton, Stevi and Lone Rock School boards place tech levy on May ballot

The school election ballot is starting to take shape both in Missoula and Ravalli Counties– with three levy elections in Hamilton, Lone Rock and Stevensville and three trustee elections in Victor, Florence and Hamilton.

There will also be competitive trustee races for the school boards in Frenchtown and at Hellgate Elementary in Missoula County.

Read the story here:

Science Olympiad State Champs

The Bitterroot had much to celebrate this month, with Hamilton High School and Corvallis Middle School bringing home top prizes in the statewide Science Olympiad competition.

Both teams will advance to nationals in Los Angeles and are fundraising to get there. To donate to the Corvallis team email Darci Herbstritt at darcih@csd1.us. To donate to the Hamilton teams, go to the Friends of Hamilton Schools Foundation website.

Read the story here: 

Corvallis students participate in Rocky Mountain Lab Program

Some Corvallis Middle Schoolers are participating in the Rocky Mountain Labs BRASS program, where scientists from the lab come to schools in the Bitterroot to teach kids science. In the first week of this year’s five week program, kids learned about parts of the cell by participating in a play representing each part and making necklaces with their own DNA.

Read the story here: 

Celebrating a program for the next generation of healthcare workers

Stevensville Public Schools celebrated the opening of their new public charter school in partnership with Bitterroot Health, one of two public charters approved across the state.

Read the story here:

Paparazzi and a spelling bee

Stevensville 8th grader Leika Lueders won the Ravalli County Spelling Bee with the word “paparazzi.”

Read the story here:

Former school leadership argue lawsuit over student's suicide should be dismissed

Missoula County Public Schools responded in the lawsuit from a mom of a C.S. Porter Middle School student who died by suicide, with defendents in the case requesting it be dismissed.

The University of Montana recommended master’s degree programs in Literature and Economics be terminated and recommended a “pause” for both its Chinese and Irish studies minors, citing declining enrollment. Students and alumni for some of these programs spoke against this decision before a Faculty Senate meeting.

UM also recently opened a new audio lab where Dr. Anoop Basavanahalli Jagadeesh is studying how audio processing in the brain changes with age, and how those changes impact mental health.

Read the story here: