The district’s Board of Education capped off the 2016-17 school year during its late June meeting with a number of celebratory student recognitions.

To begin the evening, talented students from several of the district’s elementary schools were presented with tokens of appreciation for the creative, original poems they wrote for and submitted to the Walt Whitman Poetry Contest. Congratulations to students Ben Camean, Cristian Martinez, Olivia Oechslin, Emily Schropfer and grand champion of the Grade 3 and 4 category, Tessa Burke. During the meeting, Tessa’s poem was recited by Lisa Manzo, who coordinated the contest submissions with fellow C-Quest adviser Kevin Keane.

Additionally, the Board presented Cherokee Elementary School fifth-grader Brandon Ziegler with a certificate of recognition for tying for fourth place in the Sumdog National Summer Math Contest, an extraordinary accomplishment as he was one of 147,000 students taking part in this contest.