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Students honored: STEM fair, spelling bee, sports champions, Hope Squad and STARS recognitions
Summary
The board recognized winter-sports champions, spelling-bee top finishers, STEM fair grand-prize winners headed to the Intel ISEF and STARS employee recipients. Elko High School's Hope Squad presented its peer-support activities and referral process to the board.
The Elko County School District board recognized student and staff achievements and heard presentations from student groups, including the district student board member and Elko High School's Hope Squad.
Student board member Echo Hoover was introduced by the board; Echo read a short biography and spoke briefly after the introduction. The meeting then honored winter-sports champions and runners-up from Wells High School, Carlin and Elko High School, and several other athletes received certificates.
District spelling-bee coordinator Candice Brown announced district champions for fifth through eighth grades and said winners will compete at state on March 29. Brown named Gavin Anderson (Grade 5, Flagview), Andrew Garcia (Grade 6, Flagview), Maximus Carrefield (Grade 7, Wells) and Arianna Anderson (Grade 8, Adobe) as grade-level champions; Brown said several students will advance to state and possibly nationals.
James Brawley, co-director of the district STEM Fair, introduced three grand-prize winners who will attend the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Columbus, Ohio, May 10–16. Avery Schulte presented a project on biodegradable algae-based plastics that varied carrageenan content to test strength and flexibility; she told the board her prototype smelled strongly but showed promise. Student Max Fraley demonstrated an experiment using milk proteins (casein) to make milk-derived plastics and discussed differences by milk fat content. Erica Lopez presented a small study comparing AI-detection tools and concluded the detectors she tested were inconsistent in flagging human vs AI-written text.
Kimberly Vargas, head advisor for Hope Squad at Elko High School, brought four Hope Squad members to the meeting to describe the peer-support program. The students shared short anonymized examples of outreach: a Hope Squad member said a direct message to a student led to ongoing weekly check-ins and better school engagement; another described handing out small paper "stars" with uplifting notes. Vargas explained the district's "buoy" referral process: staff and students can email a short note with the subject "buoy" to trigger an anonymous check-in by counselors or Hope Squad members; she said the program had generated about 22 referrals this year, including one teacher referral for a family member who received community resources.
The board also presented STARS employee recognitions for February to Jennifer Slusher (Northside Elementary registrar), Michelle Beasley (Spring Creek Elementary teacher) and Lindsey Lee; nominating letters highlighted customer service, leadership, and community engagement.
Board members applauded the students and staff for their presentations and wished STEM competitors luck at the international fair.
