Page 7
Mountain View’s Destiny Slocum named All American $1.00
AN EDITION OF THE IDAHO PRESS-TRIBUNE // MYMERIDIANPRESS.COM // 02.12.16
Meridian student named Doodle 4 Google finalist
G
oogle representatives surprised Mountain View High School freshman Melanie Ann Korsgaard at school last week with the news that her logo design took first in Idaho and could be displayed on Google’s homepage for hundreds of millions to see. Korsgaard entered her drawing, “Dream of Wolves,” into the eighth annual Doodle 4 Google contest but didn’t actually expect it to win.
by Holly Beech
hbeech@mymeridianpress.com © 2016 MERIDIAN PRESS
“I was so amazed that I didn’t believe it. I thought it was a joke or something,” Korsgaard said. It wasn’t until she and her family were told to sit in the front row at the school assembly today — where students had donned Google T-shirts, and colorful balloons were on display — that Korsgaard knew something was up. “I thought there was going to be a top three, and I expected me to be three...because I didn’t think I was so good at drawing,” she said, with tears still fresh in her eyes. More than 100,000 K-12 students from 53 U.S. states and territories entered the contest. From now until Feb. 22, the public can vote to narrow down the winning logos to five national finalists, one for each age group. The finalists will get to tour Google’s headquarters in California, and the national winner will receive a $30,000 college scholarship, along with a $50,000 grant for his or her school’s technology program. Google is also donating $2,500 in art supplies to Mountain View High School. “It means a lot. It helps me think that I can help more peo-
Holly Beech/MP
Google representatives surprised Mountain View High School freshman Melanie Ann Korsgaard’s at school on Feb. 5 , telling her that her doodle, ‘Dream of Wolves,’ is the Idaho winner in the eighth annual Doodle 4 Google competition. Public votes could help her become the national winner. ple that like to draw,” Korsgaard said. The contest theme — “What makes me … me” — inspired Korsgaard to draw wolves, her favorite animal. “They’re just so beautiful,” she said. “I love the way that they live together in packs and they have families, and they’re just adorable.” Korsgaard, who grew up in Denmark before moving with her family to Idaho in 2014,
showed a love for art by the age of 2, her mother, Jamie Korsgaard, said. “She would create 3-D art with paper and tape,” Jamie said. But over the years, Melanie’s confidence in her abilities waned. “So this hopefully will boost her to say, ‘I can do something, I’m good at something. This is my place, and I’m good at it,’” Jamie said. Melanie encourages others
who like to draw to keep at it. “When I was little, people said that I wasn’t very good at drawing,” she said. “And just look at me now.” This is at least the second year that a Meridian student has been chosen as the Idaho finalist. In 2014, Meridian Technical Charter High School junior Justin Whitehead took first in state for his doodle that reflected his inspirational journey of weight loss and healthy living.
VOTE n Public vote will determine the five finalists in the Doodle 4 Google competition, who will visit Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. The top winner receives a $30,000 college scholarship and a $50,000 grant for his or her school. Vote now through Feb. 22 at google.com/doodle4google/vote. html. Voters may cast one vote per doodle. The winners will be announced March 21.
West Ada board makes painstaking decision on boundary changes
T
inside
he West Ada school board wrestled with its decision on school boundary changes for six dozens of clashing viewpoints fr om parents, the board largely approved the boundary committee’s proposals, with only one change to the middle school plan. The district is undergoing a major boundary redraw because Hillsdale Elementary and Victory Middle School are opening this fall, and enrollment needs to be balanced at the five major high schools. A committee of about 35 parents has been meeting since October — collectively spending thousands of hours and hearing from hundreds of parents — to come up with a boundary proposal. Trustees hit a wall when trying to pass a high school boundary plan. After five failed motions, the board voted to approve the high school plans as is. Even with the high school boundary changes, which will take effect in the fall of 2017, Rocky Mountain and Mountain View high schools will still be overcrowded. Trustees have discussed the possibility of building a new high school or adding on to those two high schools, but they agree that passing a bond to pay for construction would be
C M Y K
by Holly Beech
MIDDLE SCHOOL NAME CHANGE
hbeech@mymeridianpress.com © 2016 MERIDIAN PRESS
a challenge. Committee member Jason Woodward urged the board not to accept the high school proposals, which would just be a “Band -Aid fix,” he said. Instead, he argued the board to plan for a future and build a new high school. “There’s enough passion for it now,” he said. Woodward’s son attends Mountain View High School, the district’s most overcrowded school with more than 2,380 students in a facility meant for 1,800 students. If no boundary changes are made, Mountain View will have an estimated 2,960 students by 2017. With the approved changes, enrollment will be an estimated 2,150. The boundary changes still don’t do enough to balance enrollment and reduce overcrowding, said Rachel Moorhouse, who has two children at Mountain View.
Please see Boundary, page 10
ON THE TOWN A ropes course, climbing wall and amusement rides are headed to Meridian. Wahooz is adding a fourstory, 17,000-square-foot Indoor Adventure Park this year.
page 8
Two square miles east of Locust Grove Road and south of Ustick Road that were set to be moved to Meridian Middle School’s zone will stay in Lewis and Clark Middle School’s zone. These students will feed into Meridian High School, meaning Lewis and Clark will still have a three-way split to three different high schools — something the committee was trying to fix. These square miles are labeled as “119” and “19” on the district’s proposed middle school boundaries map. Learn more about the boundary changes at westada.org. GRANDFATHERED IN When high school boundaries change in fall 2017, seniors and juniors will be able to stay at their current schools, so all current high schools will be able to finish out high school where they started. This fall, freshmen can choose to go to their new schools. FUTURE PLANNING The West Ada School District is forming a committee to plan for future growth and facilities. The district has a 10-year facilities plan that has “truly been adhered to over the years and served this community well,” Superintendent Mary Ann Ranells said. But with the uptick in growth, it’s time to revamp those efforts. “It’s always hard to know exactly who’s going to move in where, but we think it would be a smart thing for us to do, to just take some time” to plan,” Ranells said.
LAWSUIT
TRENDING
Two West Ada trustees are taking the recall dispute to court, saying the recall petitioners used the wrong election date to determine how many signatures they needed.
A new, hyper-local sports talk radio show is making its debut this week, hosted by the Idaho Press-Tribune’s B.J. Rains and KTVB’s Jay Tust.
page 3
page 2