Some sixth-grade students from Summit Trail Middle School have been learning about what has divided us as people throughout history, and drawing connections between novels they’re reading, current and historical events.

Teacher Vasili Andrews incorporates Black history throughout his units of study. His classes have been studying and discussing the Civil Rights Movement, influential African Americans and novels that touch on global racial equity and climate equity. They’ve also studied ancient civilizations, such as the ancient Israelites, and looked at correlations between what they’ve learned and Chief Sealth (“Si?al” in his native Lushootseed language).

As part of Tahoma’s equity focus, the district has established a Curriculum and Instruction Committee for the purpose of providing input on curriculum that is more inclusive and representative of diverse populations. The committee collaborated on recommendations for educators regarding Black History Month.

“We are striving to rethink the ways in which we teach history, so that we bring diverse perspectives into our lessons,” said Emilie Hard, Tahoma’s Director of Equity. “While Black History Month gives us an opportunity to highlight and celebrate Black history, we also want to embed Black history, and the history of all the racial and ethnic groups in our history, throughout the year. It is important that we teach accurate information and reject harmful stereotypes about all racial and ethnic groups.”

Andrews’ class at Summit Trail started off with the novel “The Cay,” which is about a 13-year-old boy who has latent prejudices and is shipwrecked in the Caribbean. The book has themes of overcoming racial prejudice, and Andrews and his class talked about it in conjunction with the Civil Rights Movement, the murder of George Floyd and other articles they studied. Students also researched and created a biography presentation on a notable or influential African American of their choice, such as Bill Russell, Malcolm X, Misty Copeland, Mary McLeod Bethune, George Washington Carver, Serena Williams, and others. In their current novel unit, they are reading “Countdown,” by Ben Mikaelsen. It’s a parallel narrative from 1996, and tells the stories of two boys: one from Montana who is chosen in a NASA lottery to go to space, and another from the other side of the world. The two meet on ham radio and start out arguing, but end up as friends.

“I kind of put a framework out there, and (the students) start connecting the dots,” Andrews said. For example, during one recent conversation, the students together realized that around the world, many people in the southern hemisphere who contribute the least to global warming are some of those most impacted by climate change.

“These are some really impressive kids. It’s a fun challenge to provide them with challenging work,” he said. This is the first year of the new middle school highly capable English Language Arts and social studies classes at STMS and Maple View Middle School.

Black History Month offers an opportunity to teach that Black history is American history, Hard said. "It's not an 'add-on,' but an important part of the history of our country, just like the roles of women and other ethnic groups. Weaving diverse perspectives into our teaching of history gives students a more complete, balanced and accurate understanding."

Here are a few additional examples of how other teachers and staff are incorporating lessons fitting for Black History Month and all year round:

About 170 students, guardians, staff and community members gathered virtually on Feb. 3 for the 2025 Cafe, to talk about the district’s goals for the next five years.

“This is a special evening,” School Board President Katrina Montgomery said. “Tonight, we will gaze into the future and begin talking about how we can sharpen our focus to guide and support our students. Our work will help shape the school district’s mission over the next five years and beyond.”

Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Dawn Wakeley asked participants to think not just big, but to shoot for the moon in support of Tahoma students. At the opening of the meeting, attendees watched this video about “Moonshot thinking,” as inspiration. “As we think about what we want to accomplish for our system … we want to think boldly tonight,” Wakeley said.

The evening’s conversations centered around the four areas most important for student success and most in need of improvement, as identified by Tahoma students, families, staff and community members during a survey at the end of 2020. Those areas are:

• Mental health support for students;

• Student & staff experiences regarding cultural understanding, diversity and equity;

• School climate and culture to build healthy relationships and effective collaboration and partnership;

• High expectations for student growth and academic success.

When signing up to attend, each person identified which of those four areas was their first area of interest. After the introduction, the cafe attendees headed to Zoom breakout rooms for the topic of their choice, where they discussed “What’s the future that we want to create” for Tahoma students, and, in order to get there, what should the district hold onto, and what should be changed.

In the mental health breakout rooms, participants talked about:

In the equity breakout rooms, participants talked about:

In the climate and culture breakout rooms, participants talked about:

In the high expectations for student growth and academic success breakout room, participants discussed:

The ideas, strategies and thoughts shared at the cafe will be used to refine the district’s goals and targets for the next five years. The Board and administrators may decide to host additional focus groups, listening sessions, topic-specific cafe meetings or other strategies as part of the process.

Advanced automotive technology students say they are grateful to be back in the building, after they were cleared to return for classes. The students work in the same pairs each time, at the same stations each time, wear masks and maintain social distancing. Similar to other students attending for in-person learning, activities and athletics in the district, auto shop students’ guardians complete a daily health screening each day to check for COVID-19 symptoms or exposure.

The class has 23 students, and they are attending the high school on an A/B schedule, with about half attending one day and the other half attending the next day. When students are at home, they’re logged in on Zoom, working on textbook-based and other assignments. Bringing back the advanced automotive technology students was possible because it is the only class with a double block. The block periods (1 & 2) made it possible for the students to be in the building for the block classes and still get home in time to virtually attend their period 3 & 4 classes because of the 60-minute lunch.

During remote learning, teacher Geoffrey Fiorito taught students the required safety training, how to inspect cars at home and asked them to research projects to “teach the teacher” in a presentation.

On one recent morning in the shop, students were working on small gas engines, learning to take them apart, clean them, fix anything in need of repair and reassemble them.

“I’m excited just to be here,” said senior Aiden Markus, who said she is looking forward to being back in the building for more hybrid classes. “Hopefully, this is a step in the right direction.”

Hunter Barfield, also a senior, said that although remote classes were convenient, it feels “awesome” to be back and see his classmates.

At another station in the shop, seniors Ethan Stuefloten and Mitchell Espinoza were reassembling their gas engine, working to put the cylinder head back on. Earlier this school year, Fiorito demonstrated the disassembly for his students on Zoom.

“It feels good that I’m not just sitting in front of a desk,” Stuefloten said.

A few stations away, seniors Shane Porter and Kiefer Furness worked to put the piston in their engine. It’s a fun project, they said, and a bit competitive -- they were looking forward to seeing who could properly complete the task and start their engine first.

Next to Porter and Kiefer were Tavian Trask and Sebastian Resendiz, who said it felt amazing to be back having a hands-on experience in the shop. And, like many of their classmates, they said they were glad to be learning from Fiorito, who the class describes as a very relatable teacher who is “always happy to see them.”

“I’m glad to have them back,” Fiorito said. “I missed the camaraderie. This is where they can learn some real-world skills and have fun doing it.”

Summit Trail Middle School’s Green Team utilized their imagination and research skills to win the Future City 2021 regional award for Best Lunar Transportation System. Future City is an organization that hosts competitions for middle school students to use applied science and math to imagine and create sustainable solutions for communities of the future.

Team Advisor Breanna Powell described the Future CIty 2021 mission: “Design a lunar city and provide examples of how your city uses two Moon resources to keep your citizens safe and healthy.”

STMS’s Green Team goals of finding sustainable, environmental friendly solutions showcase their skills and talent in these annual competitions. They looked at the challenges of living on the moon and planned how to build, live, recreate and commute successfully. Solutions explored in these competitions can be used to make our world a better place.

The team was small but effective with only 3 members: Norah D (7th grade), Hanna T (6th grade), and Liv H (6th grade). They may have started the season as rookies, under the mentorship of their advisor Powell, they are an experienced team now. The team named themselves “Celestial City” for this season, connecting to the theme of this year’s competition.

Their award-winning transportation solution utilizes hover technology (magnetic lift device) transport. They envisioned mag lift tracks for vehicles with the potential for personal transport and for wheelchairs for accessibility.

The teammates all had classwork and still found a way to prioritize their part of the project. Liv learned the moon is not “just a barren wasteland, but it is so much more. It has water-ice and oxygen contained in the regolith (loose material consisting of soil, sand, and rock fragments that covers the bedrock layer), it has a natural way of protecting a city, and so much more.” With the natural resources available the team created a city system that supported about 100,000 people of various occupations that supported life on the moon.

Hanna said, “We were not bound by any rules and we could let our imaginations run wild to create a habitable moon base and I believe that was the most interesting part about preparing for the competition.”

Norah adds, “one of the things that really stood out to me was how much opportunity the moon gives to us and our future. There are so many possibilities.”

For the presentation to the judges, the team members came up with their own signals to nonverbally make communication fluid with the judges. Powell delighted in their creativity, as they came up with a hair flip to indicate that person would respond to a judge’s question so the team was not talking over each other. Each team member participated in the creation of the presentation speaking and showing their models during the presentation.

Envisioning a community on the moon has led the team members to think about their own career paths. “This experience helped me think of my future as an inventor as we had to be creative, futuristic, and inventive to make something original; something entirely new,” Hanna said. “The making of this project also taught us important life lessons such as time management, organization, and teamwork which help us become better people.”

Thinking ahead to a future when a city on the moon is actually being built, Liv said she gets excited thinking about the potential of being an “idea contributor.”

The Green Team hosts craft nights and movie nights via Zoom as outreach to the school. Watch the STMS Daily Growl newsletter for more information.

If your student missed signing up this fall, “semester 2 is the perfect time to join the Green Team, since we will be starting new projects!,” Powell said.

Tahoma Elementary School hosted its second TES Parent Appreciation Night Wednesday night. Instead of a band like last year, the evening featured two comedians performing via Zoom from the TES auditorium.

“It was a laughter-filled event that was just one way this school community hoped to show our deep appreciation for the support, partnership and collaborative efforts of our terrific parent community,” Principal Jerry Gaston said.

Performing were TES parent Mat Gingrich, who attended junior high in Tahoma and whose father graduated from the TES campus when it was the district’s high school. The second comedian was THS teacher Cavin Eggleston, who teaches comedic literature, yearbook and other classes, and performs comedy shows as well.

In the photo: Comedians Gingrich, left, and Eggleston performing during the event earlier this week.

Tahoma High School student Alejandro Albright-Reveles was accepted into the 2022 Bands of America Honor Band, which will perform in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, CA. Albright-Reveles was selected from among hundreds of students who auditioned from around the United States, said director Matthew Cole. He plays the tenor saxophone, and will get to perform brand new arrangements of band music by a renowned band composer, Richard Saucedo.

What started as a passion has launched into a profession for Marissa Reinfeld, a freshman at Tahoma High School. She is a newly published illustrator of “Bob and Doug Go to Space,” written by Tahoma parent Leigha Reeves.

“I have dreamed of having my drawings in a published book ever since I was 6 years old!,” Reinfeld said. Until she collaborated on the book with Reeves, Reinfeld said she thought she would have to wait to be an adult to be published.

“Bob and Doug Go To Space” is a story for preschool through second grade students to explain about the SpaceX commercial reusable rocket, called a Dragon, which traveled to the International Space Station in the summer of 2020.

After Reinfeld saw the manuscript, her drawings brought the characters to life. Reeves said she was thrilled with Reinfeld’s creativity and loved her style.

Reinfeld’s perfectly illustrates what one of the astronauts said about re-entry. “We were really comfortable coming through the atmosphere, even though it felt like we were inside of an animal,” Bob Behnken, co-astronaut of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavor, told a news reporter after the flight.

Reinfeld took art class in seventh grade and is currently in an art class now. She is mostly self-taught.

“Bob and Doug Go To Space” is the first publication for both Reeves and Reinfeld. The local author is hoping to collaborate on future projects with Reinfeld for children’s books to tell the stories of other space adventures.

“Bob and Doug Go To Space” is available on Amazon as a paperback and in a Kindle version.

Summit Trail Principal Sean Cassidy and Maple View Principal Bill Weis hosted a Town Hall for middle school parents/guardians, students and staff about the hybrid/in-person learning model and the 100% remote learning model. To watch the video, click here.

For a transcript in English, click here. Para una transcripción en español, haga clic aquí.

Tahoma High School Principal Terry Duty and fellow administrators host a Town Hall for parents/guardians, students and staff about the hybrid/in-person learning model and the 100% remote learning model. To watch the video, click here.

For a transcript in English, click here. Para una transcripción en español, haga clic aquí.

Most students who have returned to school for in-person learning are wearing the right kind of mask and keeping their nose and mouth covered. Teachers and nurses are still seeing a few students whose masks are the wrong fit or design to do the job. Here is a quick explanation of how masks work to reduce the spread of coronavirus, taken from information provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control:

“Coronavirus is transmitted predominately by respiratory droplets generated when people cough, sneeze, sing, talk, or breathe. CDC recommends community use of masks, specifically non-valved multi-layer cloth masks, to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Masks are primarily intended to reduce the emission of virus-laden droplets (“source control”), which is especially relevant for asymptomatic or presymptomatic infected wearers who feel well and may be unaware of their infectiousness to others, and who are estimated to account for more than 50% of transmissions. Masks also help reduce inhalation of these droplets by the wearer (“filtration for personal protection”).

“The community benefit of masking for SARS-CoV-2 control is due to the combination of these effects; individual prevention benefit increases with increasing numbers of people using masks consistently and correctly.”

For an easy reference, this flyer explains which types of masks should be used in school.

We would like to remind parents and guardians of in-person/hybrid students that the Daily Health Screening is required to be completed every day, whether your child is attending or not. This means, if your child is not in school for any reason, you still need to complete the Daily Health Screening. Emailing the teacher or calling the front office at your child's school is not an acceptable replacement for completing the Daily Health Screening.

If you have questions about the Daily Health Screening, please contact the front office at your child's school.

Thank you for partnering with us on this important safety protocol, so that we can help keep our students, staff and community safe, and keep our schools open.

Kindergarten and first grade students whose families opted them in for in-person/hybrid learning returned to buildings on Feb. 1, followed by students in grades 2 and 3 on Feb. 3. Grades 4 and 5, as well as preschool students at Lake Wilderness Elementary, are targeted to return on Feb. 23. Some students throughout the district have been in buildings since September to receive special services.

Tahoma's free COVID-19 testing site, which serves staff and students attending for in-person learning, athletics and activities, will be closed during midwinter break.

We have received questions about what the test used at the TSD COVID-19 testing site is like. The test is from a company called Curative, and is an oral swab, which is described as feeling like brushing your teeth. To watch a video explaining the process, click here.

Parents/guardians of current 9th-grade students enrolled in Foundations of Health & Fitness are invited to attend an information night for HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health curriculum at 6 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 22. The Zoom meeting will provide parents and guardians with an understanding of the sexual health content and unit learning targets that will be covered this semester in their student’s class.

This meeting is only for parents/guardians of students who are in Foundations of Health & Fitness this year (both Quarter 3 & 4). Please register via the sign-up form to receive the Zoom meeting link. If you are unable to attend the Feb. 22 meeting and have questions, please reach out to your student’s Foundations of Health & Fitness teacher.

If you are in need of assistance with food, please contact the Maple Valley Food Bank and Backpack Buddies of Maple Valley.

No school, districtwide, for midwinter break, Feb. 15-19

Information night for parents and guardians of 9th grade students in Foundations of Health and Fitness on HIV/AIDS content (see news brief above for details), 6 p.m. via Zoom

School Board work-study session, 6 p.m., via Zoom. For details, click here.

For additional district events, click here.