Nimitz High School and MacArthur High School bands won sweepstakes awards for earning top ratings in district marching, concert and sight-reading competitions this year. The Nimitz band earned Division 1 ratings from all three judges in all three events. The second bands at both schools also earned a Division 1 rating in concert competition this year.

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The District Improvement Committee elected officers at its final meeting of the school year April 21. Parent Bob Harper was elected chairman and business representative Jim Crawford was elected vice chairman.

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Lee Elementary School is the first Irving ISD school ever to place in the Dallas County Abitibi Paper Retriever recycling contest. Lee placed second behind Woodhaven Presbyterian School by collecting 18,732 pounds of recycling in February and March. The school was rewarded with $300 in prize money.

Lively Elementary School placed fourth with 14,994 pounds and received $150. Elliott Elementary School, in seventh place with 14,204 pounds, also received $150.

Abitibi Recycling also hosted an aluminum recycling contest for IISD schools only. Townley Elementary School topped that list with 552 pounds of aluminum recycling collected, and $500 in prize money earned. Second through fifth places went to Good Elementary School, Elliott, Lee and Barton Elementary School respectively.

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Rosemarie Klassen, librarian at Hanes Elementary School, has been selected to participate in a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmark Workshop this summer. The event is titled "Crafting Freedom: Thomas Day and Elizabeth Keckley, Black Art and Entrepreneurs in the Making of America," and will be held in North Carolina. The subject is 18th century freedmen and former slaves who became artisans and business owners.

Klassen was also selected as an alternate for a workshop in Alexandria, Virginia, "Shaping the Constitution: A View From Mount Vernon," sponsored by the Bill of Rights Institute.

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The electronics program at The Academy of Irving ISD was featured in the April issue of ProService magazine, a publication of the International Society of Certified Electronics Technicians (ISCET). The Academy has the only high school ISCET chapter in the nation.

"Irving ISD has established itself as a front-runner in the use of technology in education," the article read.

Gary Kennedy is the ISCET chapter sponsor and electronics teacher.

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Students in Mary Sue Smith’s art class at MacArthur High School are gaining a virtual following this year. Smith uses a website called artsonia.com to share her students’ work with the public. So far, 17 of her students have published their artwork on the site and 591 people have viewed their work.

To see the artwork, visit www.artsonia.com/macarthur2.

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Clifton Early Childhood School students raised $1,419.68 during their Pennies for Pasta campaign for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This is the third consecutive year the school has held the fundraising event.

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Six of the seven Irving High School art students whose work reached the state level in the Visual Art Scholastic Event (VASE) competition earned top ratings. One student, Helen Engel, received the highest honor at the exhibit – a gold seal medal. Only 100 gold seal awards were given among 1,300 entries at the state exhibit.

The art was judged April 16 in Houston and scored on a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest. Engel and Brittany Urquhart had two entries reach state and each earned a 3 and a 4 rating. Phillip Castro also had two entries and earned two 4 ratings. Yesenia Andrade, Jose Barrientos, and Iris Ruiz each earned one 4 rating. And Jessica Phillips earned a 3 rating.

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A film crew from Region 10 visited Davis Elementary School to film fifth grade bilingual teacher Eddie Robles in action. Robles was teaching a science lesson on Nitrogen. The video will be used to train other teachers on teaching strategies. The video will be available on VHS or on the Region 10 website soon.

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Amanda Turner, eighth grade student at Crockett Middle School, has been accepted to the Booker T. Washington Magna Arts High School in Dallas for dance and ballet.

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