— Five graduates of east-metro high schools were initiated into Phi Beta Kappa at Iowa State University in May. The organization recognizes students for outstanding academic achievement in the liberal arts and sciences. They are Rachel Graff, who graduated from Eagan High School in 2011; David Murray, also an Eagan graduate, 2010; Caitlin Swanberg, North High School in North St. Paul, 2010; Janet Horsager, St. Anthony Village High School, 2010; and Melynda Hoover, White Bear Lake High School, 2012.
— Scott Thomas will be the next principal at Glacier Hills Elementary School in Eagan. He replaces Jeff Holten, who is retiring.
— Burnsville-Eagan-Savage elementary school principals will read to children every Thursday at Nicollet Commons Park in Burnsville’s Heart of the City. The Rockin’ Readers programs will be at 11:15 a.m. through Aug. 21.
— Joni Hagebock will be the next principal at Somerset Elementary in Mendota Heights. Hagebock has been the principal at Friendly Hills Middle School since 2007. She replaces Sara Palodichuk, who took a job with South Washington County schools.
— Farmington students interested in chemistry spent a week at Meadowview Elementary with an instructor from Science Explorers. The local enrichment program offered through Farmington Community Education taught students how science impacts their daily lives.
— The South St. Paul schools custodial, maintenance and technology departments are hosting their 18th golf tournament July 10 at the Cannon Falls Golf Club. The event raises money for scholarships. For more information, call 651-457-9474.
— Eric Nelson will be the new principal of Irondale High School in New Brighton. He has spent the past 12 years at Edina High School, where he was assistant principal and dean of students for one year. Before that, he was a high school social studies teacher and curriculum leader in the West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan district. Nelson has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota and an education specialist degree from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. He replaces Scott Gengler, who accepted a job at Wayzata High School.
— Robbie Muniz, who will be a freshman at Hill Murray in Maplewood this fall, participated in a People to People Leadership Summit at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Participants were involved in patient care studies and medical laboratory research along with sessions about student leadership.
— Two grants have been received by Roseville Area Schools. A $3,800 grant from the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union will pay for binoculars, books and training so Harambee Elementary in Maplewood can expand its use of birding as a learning tool. A $4,600 grant from Century Link and the Minnesota Business Partnership will be used to buy Engineering is Elementary curriculum units and provide training for teachers.
— AnnMarie Thomas, a professor of engineering at the University of St. Thomas, attended the first White House Maker Faire, hosted by President Barack Obama earlier this month. At the event, Thomas and her 6-year-old daughter, Sage, demonstrated “squishy circuits,” which use homemade play dough to trigger lights and spin motors. Thomas directs the engineering school’s Playful Learning Lab at St. Thomas and teaches courses on machine design and engineering graphics.
— Megan Olivia Hall, a teacher at Open World Learning Community, won the 2015 Award for Teaching Excellence from the National Education Association Foundation. Hall, a science educator and the 2013 Minnesota Teacher of the Year, is one of 39 educators who will receive the honor at the foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Education Gala in Washington.
— More than 50 community members participated in the first Rethinking School Start Times Community Meeting hosted by the St. Paul school district earlier this month. The district is seeking input from parents and others as it considers later start times for high school students. More than 500 people have provided feedback through an online survey.
— The charter Avalon School is featured in a new book titled “Deeper Learning: How Eight Innovative Public Schools Are Transforming Education in the Twenty-First Century” by Monica Martinez. The book highlights the school’s focus on hands-on projects that foster critical thinking and its interest in giving students more voice in their learning.
— Brian Rosenberg, president of Macalester College, received a $250,000 senior presidential leadership grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The three-year grant will help the college launch new courses and enhance existing ones, provide faculty development, and explore cooperative partnerships and alternative forms of campus governance.
— Teachers at St. Jude of the Lake in Mahtomedi will be using a Lego curriculum about robotics next school year thanks to a $5,200 grant from the Minnesota Independent School Forum. The organization awarded 30 grants for science, technology, engineering and math thanks to the support of the 3M Foundation, Pentair Foundation, Schott Foundation and Xcel Energy Foundation.
— The South Washington County district has a photo contest called “Where Is 833 Reading This Summer?” Pictures of students and staff reading anywhere in the world will be posted on the district’s Facebook page at facebook.com/sowashco. The photo with the most “likes” will be the winner, and the prize will be a Barnes & Noble gift certificate donated by district staff.
— Students at Park High School in Cottage Grove ended the school year with a successful harvest and sale of plants grown aeroponically. The Aeroponic Growers, under the instruction of work experience coordinator Julie Miller-Hays, learned how to grow plants in air or mist without using soil. The students received guidance from Jerry Lee from Grow Towers and Terrie and Katie Gerten of Gerten’s Farm Market.
— Students in the school-age child care program at Crestview Elementary and Nuevas Fronteras Spanish Immersion in Cottage Grove honored Zach Sobiech with their own “Clouds” video. Sobiech, who lived in Lakeland, wrote “Clouds” before he died of bone cancer last year.
— Courtney McCormick and Melissa Underwood of the Mahtomedi Area Educational Foundation presented a check for $65,000 to the Mahtomedi school board in May. The money, which was raised at the foundation’s March gala, will go toward classroom projects and technology needs.
— Dan Pyan is the new director of finance for South Washington County schools. Pyan was director of fiscal affairs for Winona Area Public Schools and also has worked in the Minnesota districts of New Prague and Stewartville. He has bachelor’s degrees in accounting from Winona State University and in journalism and physical education from Minnesota State Mankato. Pyan has been a member of the Minnesota Association of School Business Officials for 13 years and chairs its legislative committee. He replaces Aaron Bushberger, who took a job with the South St. Paul district.
— After three years as director of special services for South Washington County schools, Jeff Jorgensen has resigned to become director of student support services for Edina Public Schools.
— Two new elementary principals have been named in the South Washington County district: Jolaine Mast at Pine Hill Elementary in Cottage Grove and Sara Palodichuk at Middleton Elementary in Woodbury. Mast was an elementary principal in Fairbank, Iowa, for the past four years, responsible for students in preschool through sixth grade at three sites. Palodichuk most recently was principal of Somerset Elementary in Mendota Heights. She worked for South Washington County schools from 1993 to 2006 as a classroom teacher, reading specialist and assistant principal, and for North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale schools from 2006 to 2013 as principal of Webster and Carver elementaries.
— The University of Minnesota won a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help speed breakthroughs in energy research. The university’s new Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center will receive $3 million a year for the next four years to pursue discovering a new class of catalytic materials for converting shale gas components. The university’s center is one of 32 projects chosen from 200 proposals for the grants.
— The University of Minnesota received a National Science Foundation I-Corps Site award to help students and faculty assess the commercial potential of their discoveries and test them in the marketplace. Among other efforts, the $300,000, three-year grant will support an intensive course in which students test business models and receive feedback from instructors and mentors.
— Michael Fronmueller will become dean of the College of Business and Economics at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls on July 1. Fronmueller has served as dean of the Hasan School of Business at Colorado State University-Pueblo since 2007. He has also held academic leadership positions at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y.; California State University-Northridge; the University of Louisiana-Lafayette; and Boise State University. Fonmueller earned a Ph.D. from Washington State University and a master’s from Eastern Washington University. He replaces Glenn Potts, who is retiring.