Highlands students, teachers and programs honored: TSA state winners, spelling bee qualifier, forensics champion and Knight Society showcase

Fort Thomas Independent trustees spent a portion of their meeting recognizing student and staff achievements across academic and extracurricular programs, including state-level titles in Technology Student Association competitions, a regional spelling bee winner heading to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a state forensics champion, and a student showcase from the Knight Society 3D-printing club.

Ron Roselle, Highlands High School engineering teacher, introduced state-level Technology Student Association (TSA) winners. Elizabeth Clark took first place in photo technology engineering after a regional portfolio and a timed-state prompt. "I placed first out of those club," Elizabeth told the board, describing a 24-hour, on-site portfolio task and an interview stage at state competition.

Two students, Gabe McDermott and Isaac (last name not specified in transcript), won first place in the music production category. Gabe summarized the team’s process and said the prompt required original music for a blacksmith setting in a video game; the pair advanced from regionals (second place) to win at state and expect to compete at the national TSA conference in late June. "We turned it into state, and we were completely shocked when we won," Gabe said.

The board also recognized George (last name not provided), who won the regional spelling bee and earned a place at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. The board noted the scale of the national competition and congratulated him on advancing from regional rounds.

Alyssa Davis, the district’s forensics coach, introduced Charlotte, who won the Kentucky state championship in informative speaking. Charlotte described researching and producing a roughly 10‑minute original speech about the U.S. funeral industry and creating presentation boards and props. "It was a wonderful experience," she said, adding that teammates and coaches were central to her work.

Elementary and middle school students from the Knight Society 3D‑printing program presented examples of their design work and described learning the design process, file conversion to STL and printer preparation. Students described projects including dice holders, cookie cutters and custom charms; mentors emphasized resilience through iterative fixes when prints did not fit as expected.

The board also presented teacher and staff recognitions: Becky Brady, a first‑grade teacher at Moyer Elementary, was nominated by parent Corey Pazinski for a district award; Mr. Pazinski cited individual outreach and classroom support as reasons for the nomination.

Superintendent-level remarks and board applause accompanied the recognitions. Staff noted that several student groups will attend upcoming state and national events and that the board will welcome future reports on their national results.