Saint George's Dragons are the State Scholastic Cup Champions for 2019-20!  That makes SGS the top 2B school in the state for academics, athletics and activities for the seond time in the last three years.  Saint George's earned top points for the Boys Soccer State Title last fall and for Choir and Debate winning State Academic Titles for top GPA.  See a Complete List of the SGS teams and programs that earned points this year for their high finishes at State competitions.  

The Dragons finished with 755 points, more than 250 points ahead of second place.  The top six 2B schools in the state for 2019-20 were all in the Northeast District and are regular opponents of the Dragons.   See a list of the Top 2B Schools in the state and their point totals.

The Scholastic Cup is the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association's (WIAA) most prestigious annual school award.  The year-long competition recognizes the top school in each of the six WIAA classifications based on academic, athletic and sportsmanship excellence.  Points are awarded by a school’s finish in each of the WIAA State Championships and Academic State Championships.  Due to the cancellation of spring sports during the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s winners include points scored during the fall and winter seasons.  In addition to SGS as the 2B winner, local high schools Mt. Spokane (3A) and Central Valley (4A) also won the Scholastic Cup for their classifications, each for the first time.  Read the Full Announcement from the WIAA website.

The following Saint George's School events are affected by the upcoming closure of Saint George's and all K-12 schools in Washinton state:

> Monday-Friday, 5/4-5/22 - IB Diploma Exams cancelled.
> Thursday-Friday, 5/7-5/8 - 6th Grade Musical & 7th-8th Choir Concert cancelled.
> Friday, 5/8 - LS Grandparents Day & Writers' Celebration cancelled.
> Saturday, 5/9 - Spring Gala cancelled.
> Thursday-Friday, 5/21-5/22 - 5th Grade Musical cancelled.
> Sunday, 5/24 - Junior-Senior Prom postponed - date TBD.
> Thursday-Friday, 5/28-5/29 - 6th Grade Nez Perce/Salmon Trip cancelled.
> Tuesday-Saturday, 6/2-6/6 - 8th Grade Coast Trip cancelled.

As other events are changed, we will update this list.  See the SGS Calendar for the latest changes.

The 6th graders watched their teacher Kristie Slattengren separate out DNA from strawberries on May 14. Then those who had the materials at home performed their own DNA separation!  Here's a Photo Gallery of them mashing up a strawberry, adding soapy salty water and continuing to mash it, then filtering it with a coffee filter, then slowly adding isopropyl alcohol and watching the DNA precipitate so they can scoop it out with a coffee stir stick.

The Lower School's LEGO League Jr. Club thanks Laura Bradford for her countless hours of organizing and coaching.  Thanks as well to the coaches who assisted Laura: Toshi Shimizu, Jacob Swartz, Jamie Mitchell, Sarah Hill, and Mirna Tohmeh.  A special thanks goes to 4th grade teacher Rick Petrini, who was always on hand for support and guidance.  The four teams -- Boomerang Builders, Crazy Creators, Pentagon Builders, and LEGO Dragons -- excitedly explored their projects and worked on their structures this winter before classes went online in March.  Over the last weekend, Laura busily made certificates and medals to be sent to the kids along with their engineering notebooks and pictures of their structures.  See a Photo Gallery of the kids hard at work!

Students in the Class of 2020 were in 1st grade back in the spring of 2009 when they performed the play "Rumpus in the Rainforest."  Here is a Photo Gallery from a PowerPoint showing that play.  Looks like they knew how to make a rumpus way back then!

On Saturday, May 2, five Saint George’s students competed online in the Washington State Elementary Chess Championships.  Noah Hochheimer, Eshan Reddy, Donovan Bradford, Adrian Rooney, and Preston Sevigny were among about 1200 students who participated from across the state.  Previously, these five had competed in local online tournaments through March and April, said SGS chess coach James Stripes. 

Hosted on ChessKids.com, the seven-round tournament started with a few technological hiccups.  After 90 minutes, the competitors began to play their games.  Eshan finished with a 4.5 for 40th place in the fourth-grade division and was the top scoring SGS player.  Donovan, who also competed in the same division, finished with “one win and one draw,” Coach Stripes said.  Fifth graders Adrian and Preston both scored 3.0, while third grader Noah got 3.5 in his division. 

See the Preliminary Results of the tournament.  “The results are preliminary because there is still a process of investigating possibilities of cheating (a constant problem in online chess),” notes Coach Stripes, who will receive the full results from the event once they have been verified.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many events have either been cancelled, postponed, or switched from in-person to online formats.  The Washington State Elementary Chess Championship organizers chose the latter, allowing approximately 1200 young players to still compete.  This may be a new historical record for the “largest online chess tournament,” said Coach Stripes.  View a Recording of the Event on Facebook.

The SGS World Language teachers would like to thank everyone who participated in the Cinco de Mayo Perfect Plate Challenge!  They had many wonderful submissions of Mexican recipes from all divisions that made voting very difficult.  They are happy to announce the following winners: 
Drink - Nick & Nate Henning; 
Appetizer/Entrée - Upper School: Gabi Cunningham; Middle School: Savvy Briceño; Lower School: Riley Engels and Joey Maestas; 
Dessert - Nic McIndoe.  
Be sure to check out the Photo Gallery of all of the submissions.  

As part of the 6th grade's unit on Buddhism, the students completed a week long intro to Zen Mindfulness Meditation.  They listened to videos on how to practice and then did 15-minute guided meditations each day and wrote reflections on how it went.  Here is a Photo Gallery of the students during their meditation sessions at home, plus a photo of 6th grade teacher Brad Kirsch and kids practicing meditation on Graduation Bridge.

The 2nd graders created space-focused items at home for a project about our solar system.  See a Photo Gallery of some of their out-of-this world creations!

Three SGS seniors have won scholarships in the Spokane Scholars recognition.  Congratulations to Sarah Wu, who was 3rd in Mathematics for a $2,000 scholarship, and to Marshall Roll, who was 2nd in English, for a $3,000 scholarship.  Special honors to Kathryn Moon, who was the top Social Studies student in the Spokane area and will receive a $4,000 scholarship.  See the Spokane Scholars Announcement Video for more information about the scholarship winners.  (Marshall is at the 5:43 mark of the video, Sarah at the 13:47 mark, and Kathryn is at the 25:51 mark.)  Go Dragons!