The Ilalko Elementary School Green Team has established a holiday lights recycling program. The goal is to collect as many broken and

unusable light strands through January 22, 2010. The light strands will be recycled at a local metal recycling center where a breakdown process will reclaim metal within the strands. Please do not put holiday light strands in your curbside recycling. Holiday light strands are only accepted at metal recycling companies.

All proceeds will benefit the Ilalko Library Fund to purchase books for the library and other recycling initiatives at Ilalko such as milk carton recycling and future projects like composting.

Lights can be dropped off at:Ilalko Elementary School front office, 301 Oravetz Pl. SE • James P. Fugate Administration Building, 915 4th St. NE • Top Foods Lake Tapps store, 1406 Lake Tapps Pkwy. SE • Lakeland Hills Chiropractic, 1408 Lake Tapps Pkwy. SE, Suite E105 • Children’s Dance Theater, 14 B St. NE • Auburn YMCA, 1620 Perimeter Road • Bank of America-Southcenter Branch, 633 Southcenter, Seattle •

With the recent implementation of a comprehensive Resource Conservation program, Auburn School District is placing renewed emphasis on recycling and other forms of environmental stewardship, such as the wise use of electricity, natural gas and water. In the past year, Auburn School District’s operations and maintenance department has reduced the ongoing costs associated with solid waste by over $50,000 through increased recycling, composting and careful planning of service.

For more information about the holiday lights recycling program or to request a collection box at your business or church, please contact Ilalko Elementary School PTA co-presidents Lynne Stephens or Vinnette Lang at (253) 931-4748.

Auburn School District students and staff are celebrating the holidays—from stuffing stockings to honoring cultural traditions to singing carols. The following

acts of service are just some of the ways students and staff are paying it forward this holiday season.

Auburn Riverside High School Key Club volunteered for the fifth year in a row to fill stockings with toys and treats for the Annual Kiwanis Christmas Party Luncheon on December 10. Over 90 elementary students with special needs enjoyed live music, a McDonald’s lunch, an opportunity to meet Santa Clause and one of the stockings prepared by the Auburn Riverside Key Club. The event is a partnership between the Auburn Valley Kiwanis, Auburn Noon Kiwanis and Auburn School District. This holiday season the Key Club also organized a school-wide personal hygiene drive. All donated items were assembled into toiletry kits and distributed to the homeless.

Ilalko Elementary School fifth graders celebrated their cultural heritage during Ilalko’s 14th annual Heritage Feast on November 25. Students raved about family recipes from Greece, Mexico, India, Thailand and Germany including lamb gyros with tzatziki sauce, spätzle, adobo-seasoned beef and pork, and an Indian vegetable dish. The Heritage Feast provides students an opportunity to share foods from their native country and celebrate cultural differences. According to fifth grade teacher Mr. Evans, “The

Heritage Feast follows the students’ study of pluralism. It is a great event that shows students when different cultures work together, good things happen.” Students learn about pluralism through class assignments such as interviewing a person who has immigrated into the United States and writing an expository essay about their findings.

Dick Scobee Elementary School’s fourth and fifth grade honor choir, the “Scobee Swingers,” sang holiday tunes at several local retirement communities including Auburn Meadows Assisted Living and Rio Verde. The Scobee Swingers were also invited to sing at Auburn Top Foods during its “Sing from the Heart” weekend event on December 12. The store donated $50 for every half hour of singing. The Scobee Swingers sang for one hour and helped raise $100. The choir’s winter concert will be on December 18 as they lead their classmates and parents in singing carols during a school-wide assembly.

Students and Staff Spread Holiday Cheer

Auburn School District Announces Logo Design Contest

The Auburn School Board invites all students to submit an original logo that complements the new district slogan, “Engage Educate Empower.”

The student with the winning logo will be recognized at a future school board meeting. Additionally, the logo will become the official trademark of the Auburn School District and be publicized on the district website and printed on district letterhead, T-shirts and more. The winning logo may be modified for final use.

All logo designs must be submitted by Friday, January 8, 2010 to a neighborhood school front office or to Louanne Decker, Assistant Superintendent, at the James P. Fugate Administration Building, 915 4th Street NE, Auburn, WA 98002.

Logo entry forms are available on the district website at http://www.auburn.wednet.edu/Communications/NewLogoDesign.html. All entries must fit within a 4"x4" space and include the student’s name, school and grade. Additionally, each entry must describe how the logo complements the new district slogan, “Engage Educate Empower,” in 25 words or less.

Community Supports Auburn School District Capital Improvements Levy

Auburn School District voters approved the district’s $46.4 million capital im-provements levy on the November 3rd ballot. The measure passed with a 55.17%

combined yes vote between King and Pierce Counties.The community’s support allows the Auburn School District to begin necessary

repairs and essential improvements at 19 schools and six support facilities. The funds will be collected over six years, and repairs will be made throughout this time. Look for future project updates on the district website, www.auburn.wednet.edu, beginning in 2010.

Auburn School District encourages local contractors to register on the district’s small works roster. Please contact the business services department to obtain a small works roster application at (253) 931-4970 or access the application online at http://www.auburn.wednet.edu/BusinessServices/BusServimages/SmallWorksRoster.PDF.

Auburn Riverside High School Key Club and Auburn Valley Kiwanis members Harold Valentine and Ruth Brink fill 100 stockings for students with special needs in the Auburn School District.

Parent volunteer Anna Brendible dishes up fifth grader Olivia Bethea during Ilalko Elementary School’s Heritage Feast on November 25.

Helen Rosales, Ashley Arnold, Cameron Strickland and Aaron Orozco of Scobee Swingers sing “Cranberries Forever” while animating the lyrics during a performance at Rio Verde.

Ilalko’s Green Team Kicks Off Holiday Lights Recycling Program