At the last School Board meeting, Superintendent Mike Carey enthusiastically congratulated and awarded the Block “A” Community Service Award to Dalton Brown, a freshman at Argonaut High School. This multi-talented young man is the first freshman ever to win this award.

The presentation wasn’t the only moment of pride for Superintendent Carey. Amador will be sending 2 champions to the State Spelling contest. This year’s Amador County Public Schools’ “Spelling Bear” had 30 participants. Chew successfully won the Spelling Bear earlier that afternoon by successfully spelling ‘embarrass’.  The winner, 6th grader Krista Chew of Pine Grove, is a returning champion. She finished 10th in the state at last years State spelling contest. Joining Krista this year will be Haley Capitanich, a student from the Ione Junior High school.

On the opposite end of the academic spectrum, concerns were also voiced by board member David Dutra regarding the failing grades of some high school students. Earlier this year, an administrative directive was created to try to

encourage more parental involvement in their children’s educational success. Dutra was concerned that there was no follow-up to this directive. He suggested that the parents of students with failing grades be surveyed to see if they had been contacted regarding their children’s grades. Board president Mary Walser felt that contacting parents was not the role of the board, but rather the responsibility of high school principals. The board agreed and Dutra reiterated that principals should be making random calls and include the results in their report to the board.