News-Democrat

More than 40 student authors were selected to represent Granite City School District 9 at the Madison County Young Author Conference.

Students in kindergarten through eighth grade were invited to submit manuscripts to their school's Young Author Committee. Each school conducted its own judging to determine the manuscripts that would be submitted to the district committee.

On Feb. 11, a panel of teacher, student, and parent judges gathered at Niedringhaus School to read the manuscripts. The books were judged on creativity, character development, story structure, focus, sense of audience, grammar and vocabulary.

District Young Author Coordinator Barbara Vrabec then compiled the results of the judge's ratings of the 85 manuscripts to determine which students would represent the district. "I enjoyed observing the smiles on the judge's faces as they enjoyed reading the stories," Vrabec said. "It is amazing the impact the books had on each reader."

The students invited to the county conference April 20 at Edwardsville High School will have the opportunity to meet with Edwardsville children's author Jennifer Ward, who will share her experiences as a writer. The students also will meet in small group sessions with Madison County teachers and volunteers to share their writing and explore other creative writing projects.

The middle school students representing Granite City at the conference will be Brock Bell, Kira Brown, Gerald Cochrum, Jacob Grayson, Zoe Jackson, Gerri Marion, Mariah Martin, Trinity Martin, Dakota Smallie, Kathleen Smith, Megan Wallace, Holly Zaring and Mona Zubi, and the elementary school students are Bianca Banuelos, Hannah Barnes, Brooke Batson, Ava Clark, Drew Coleman, Jacyn Connolly, Grant Crider, Nicholas Cuvar, Christian Dean, Memphis Egbert, Lillian Harris, Peyton Hatfield, Dulce Hernandez, Ella Hickam, Gavin Hooper, Griffin James, Iceley James, Lexi Kunz, Emily LeMaster, Aidan Love, Vallyn Martinez, Colin Niepert, Missy Patel, Joni Patrich, Mason Smith, Iman Somerville, Ariel Tadlock, Jacob Volz and Maleeya White.

In addition, 10 students were invited to represent the district at the Illinois State Young Author Conference in Bloomington in May. Those students will be: Gerald Cochrum, Mariah Martin, Mona Zubi, Bianca Banuelos, Hannah Barnes, Drew Coleman, Grant Crider, Peyton Hatfield, Emily LeMaster and Mason Smith.

Two metro-east high school students moved onto the semi-finals rounds of the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation's St. Louis Teen Talent Competition. O'Fallon Township High School student Meadow Nguy, a singer, and Red Bud High School student Jillian Ostlund, a singer/pianist, were two of 37 acts selected following the preliminary round of competition earlier this month.

Meadow and Jillian will compete in the semi-final round Saturday. All the teens are competing for a chance to perform on The Fabulous Fox stage on April 12 and win scholarships and prizes. For more information, visit www.foxpacf.org/teen-talent-showcase.aspx.

Environmentalist Chad Pregracke will present "Helping to Clean America's Rivers: From the Bottom Up" at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in The Commons at Southwestern Illinois College Sam Wolf Granite City Campus, located at 4950 Maryville Road.

Pregracke will talk about growing up on the river and how that experiences led to his unique vision to clean up the Mississippi River. Pregracke is president and founder of America's only "industrial strength" river clean-up organization, Living Lands & Waters. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 618-931-0600, ext. 7378.

Belleville School District 118 will hold preschool screenings Tuesday, March 22, and April 10 and 25. The 3- to 4-year-olds will be screened in the following developmental areas: language skills, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, cognitive skills and vision and hearing. The screening, which takes about an hour and a half, will be at the District 118 annex, 112 N. Second St. To make an appointment, call 618-233-2515.

The following students placed in the Belleville Area General Speech meet Feb. 16 at Our Lady Queen of Peace School: Jessica Hoffmann and Ellie Buescher (duet acting) received a perfect score; Kaitlyn Campbell (humorous interpretation) placed second; Laney Martz and Ally Ecker (duet acting) placed first; Evan Senat (humorous interpretation) earned a perfect score; and Therese Beabout (serious interpretation) received a perfect score.

A team of 14 students from Pontiac Junior High in Fairview Heights competed Feb. 16 at the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Regional Science Olympiad Competition. The team sponsored by science teacher Mike Avara placed third and received an invitation to the state level competition, which will be held April 20 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Two gold and seven silver medals were earned in nine of the 23 individual events held, which encompassed biology, physical science, earth science and engineering. The Pontiac Junior High team also received the Spirit Award for their energy and good sportsmanship. This is the sixth year Pontiac Junior High entered the competition and the fourth year in a row the team has been invited to state level competition. Team members include eighth graders Esther Aoieong, Grace Gerbi, Marcus Henry, Kevin Jolani, Amber Kelso, Reegan Warren and Lauren White; seventh graders Rian Grady, Daniel Harms, Chris Herbstreit, Yazmin Romero-Sanchez and Carson Woodfin; and sixth graders Emanuel Gerbi and Laura Rundquist.

Edwardsville School District 7 has begun accepting 2013-14 registrations for its Preschool Academy, a full-day, tuition-based preschool program for children ages 3-5. Children must be 3 years of age on or before Sept. 1 and must be toilet-trained. Registrations will be accepted for children who turn 3 after Sept. 1 on a space available basis. This program, which is open to District 7 residents, will be staffed by certified early childhood teachers and paraprofessionals.

The District 7 Preschool Academy will be held at Goshen Elementary next school year. The hours of operation will be from 9:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. This program will run concurrently with the elementary calendar beginning in August. For more information, call 618-655-6083 or visit www.ecusd7.org/preschoolacademy.

Do you have an item for Education Matters or an education-related story tip? We want to know about it. Send your ideas to Jamie Forsythe at education@bnd.com or call 618-239-2562.

Do you have an item for Education Matters or an education-related story tip? We want to know about it. Send your ideas to Jamie Forsythe at education@bnd.com or call 618-239-2562.