CHS Drama Dept. presents “Rumors”

The CHS Drama Dept. presents the play “Rumors” by Neil Simon this Friday and Saturday and next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7 p.m. in the CHS Theatre. At its start, four couples gather in the posh suburban residence of a deputy New York City Mayor for a dinner party. When they arrive, they discover there are no servants, the hostess is missing, and the host – the deputy mayor – has shot himself through the earlobe! Comic complications arise when, given everyone's upper class status, they decide they need to do everything possible to conceal the evening's events from the local police and the media.


Cost for the play is $5 for adults and students w/out an ASB and $3 for students. 

Lacamas Fire Drill

The Washington State Legislature recently passed a law, RCW 28A.320.125, requiring school districts to participate in what is known as a Multi-Agency Fire Drill once every four years. On Tuesday, October 26, the Camas Fire Department, the Camas Police Department, and CSD Operations team conducted a fire drill that simulated the actions necessary if a structural fire at Lacamas Heights Elementary were to occur. With the help of Lacamas Staff, students were relocated to Grace Foursquare Church, which is the school’s pre-determined, off-campus evacuation site. From the church, buses picked students up at regular dismissal time and departed for the trip home as usual. Parents who regularly pick up their students were able to do so at Grace Foursquare.

Both the Camas PD and FD as well as district staff did an outstanding job ensuring the safety of our students during the drill. A big thanks goes out to the volunteers at Grace Foursquare Church who let us borrow their space and audio equipment and who also generously provided hot coffee drinks to the Lacamas staff and fire/police personnel.

Camas Holly Days Arts & Crafts Fair

Get in the holiday spirit by attending the 

Camas Holly Days Arts and Crafts Fair. 

Unique holiday crafts, decorations, gift items, 

food concessions, holiday music and fun for the family!

Saturday, November 13

9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Liberty Middle School Cafeteria

1612 NE Garfield Street

College & Career Options

The upcoming CHS College & Career Options Event will offer important college and post high school information for all high school students (9th-12th grade) and their parents. Several workshops will be held in the theatre along with other breakouts sessions. Click here to view the announcement.

Beauty and Mathematics

Come and join the community to hear Dr. Frank Wang speak on Beauty and Mathematics Tuesday, October 19, From 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. in the Camas High School Theatre. The event is free to the public and all are welcome.

Dr. Wang’s personal story is inspiring. Dismissed at a young age and deemed unable to learn, Dr. Wang failed at school until he began to secretly study math. Through his determination, Dr. Wang went on to earn a PhD in pure mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After building a successful publishing company, Dr. Wang decided to return to the classroom to share his love of mathematics with young people.

His presentation on Beauty and Mathematics is the perfect answer to the question "What do  mathematicians do?" Dr. Wang will illustrate through humor, riddles, and concrete demonstrations - a higher purpose of mathematicians: To seek and find structure and order in apparent chaos and disorder.

Seating for the presentation is limited.For reserved seating please email your name and the number of people who will join you to: Jonathan.burton@camas.wednet.edu. 

Once you receive the confirmation, email please print it and bring it with you to the event. Also, send this email to a friend.

To learn more about Dr. Wang you can visit his web site at: http://www.wangeducation.com. 

Know a student interested in a career in tech?

I wanted to let you know that the Software Association of Oregon is holding this year's Portland-area careers in IT education event for middle and high school students on October 21 at WSU Vancouver from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Eric VanderHouwen will be the keynote speaker but there will be three young women talking about their experiences from age 14 onward about careers in computer science, management information systems, and web site development/design.

If you or someone you know has a child who might benefit from hearing about the reasons they would want to get excited about going into a wide-range of careers in IT, this is the event for them to attend. Please consider bringing your children to this event or sharing this with others who have children who might want to come. The link with more information and how to register is http://www.sao.org/events/event_details.asp?id=127665.

Camas Schools: A Tradition of Caring and Quality

Take a few minutes to view this video which highlights the significant support our students have received from our community. Images from the Two Rivers Heritage Museum, and the Camas Community Center are included with interviews from Burt Duncan, Gail Welsh, Doug Quinn, and, of course, Mel Cardon. From our earliest days of educating students through our outstanding programs today, we have much for which to be thankful. 



This video was produced by ESD 112 and can be seen on TV ECT Comast channel 28.

Camas Transportation Ridership Week: October 1-7, 2010

School districts in the State of Washington receive funding based on the number of students who utilize busing services. Each fall, districts conduct a ridership count for one week. This count is used to report average student ridership to Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. If the Camas School District regularly transports your student, please have them ride the bus to school during the week of October 1-7, 2010.

If you have questions, contact the Transportation Department at 833-5585.

Way to Go, Ms. Clark!

Camas High School teacher Melanie Clark was one of 40 teachers nationwide chosen to participate in a food science workshop developed and implemented in a partnership between the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), and the Graduate School at Washington DC. The one-week workshop for middle and high school science and family and consumer science teachers took place in Washington, DC, this summer.

The workshop is part of the FDA/NSTA Professional Development Program in Food Science, a sustained effort that also features curriculum implementation, a follow-up conference, and participant-led workshops. The goal of the program is to educate teachers and students about critical food safety issues such as foodborne illnesses by exploring the science behind them. The program arms teachers with a unique new topic and curriculum with which to teach science. In addition, participants learn about nutrition and food allergies from FDA experts and receive nutrition material to help teach their students how to use the Nutrition Facts Label to make better food choices.

At the workshop, teacher participants learned firsthand about the development and spread of foodborne illnesses; the vulnerability of at-risk populations; and the science behind safe food handling, storage, and preparation. These teachers also learned how to better use the Nutrition Facts Label to assess the nutritional value of foods. In addition, the teachers talked with scientists from FDA and conducted laboratory experiments at the University of Maryland to further increase their understanding of food science.

For example, the teachers investigated how a single bacteria cell can multiply to millions in just a few hours, and they observed how different temperatures (heating, room temperature, chilling, and freezing) affect the growth of bacteria. The teachers explored these concepts by putting their culinary skills to the test. After cooking hamburgers to various temperatures, the teachers tested them for bacteria and other organisms that cause disease.

The food science program is centered on a standards-based curriculum developed by FDA in partnership with NSTA. The Science and Our Food Supply curriculum is available at no charge to any middle level or high school science teacher; it explores the science behind the production, transportation, storage, and preparation of our nation’s food supply, and contains a video, hands-on experiments and activities, and evaluation tools. Other parts of the curriculum explore little-known facts about food science that affect millions of people every day, such as how the passage of time affects the nutritional value of produce, the likelihood of certain foods to cause foodborne illness more than others, and reasons why salt serves as a good preservative. 

Healthy Youth Survey

It is fall and that means many of our middle school and high school students will be asked to participate in the Washington State Healthy Youth Survey which measures health risk behaviors that contribute to morbidity, mortality, and social problems among youth in Washington State. 2010 marks the twelfth year of the statewide survey of Washington's students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12.

The results gathered are an important source of needs-assessment data for school districts, community-based organizations, local health and human service agencies, and state agencies. The results are used to monitor the health status of adolescents and track progress on state and federal education and health-related goals. The information from the Healthy Youth Survey may be used to identify trends in patterns of behavior over time. 

Click here for more information.

CEF Auction Tickets Available Now!

The Camas Educational Foundation is proud to present the 12th Annual Auction on Saturday, October 23, at Camas Meadows Golf Club. Tickets for the event are just $35. This year’s raffle winner will receive a one-week stay in Hawaii; tickets for the raffle are only $10. Event registration and raffle tickets are available online at www.cefcamas.org.

Over the past eleven years, CEF has given over $740,000 to Camas Schools: $267,500 through its strategic grant program and over $475,000 in "mini-grants." The 2009 auction brought in more than $61,000 which is distributed directly to teachers and students for innovation in the district.

Seeking Name Suggestions

The Camas School District has broken ground on the new east-side elementary school. This building is set to open in the fall of 2013. Planning Principal Jan Strohmaier is looking for your input on naming our newest school. If you have any ideas, please let us know in this web survey:

Take the survey.

The survey responses will be collected until Monday, September 27, 2010.

District seeks advisory committee members

In preparation for the new school year, the Camas School District is seeking volunteers to serve on the district’s Citizens Advisory Committee. CAC consists of 18-25 school district patrons who advise school administrators and board members on a variety of issues.

Meetings are held the first Monday of each month during the school year. Interested citizens are encouraged to visit the next CAC meeting on October 4, 2010, at Helen Baller Elementary School, 1954 NE Garfield Street, at 5:30 p.m.

Applications to CAC can be completed at the meeting, online at www.camas.wednet.edu or by contacting Lynette Marshall at 833-5412. All completed applications should be returned to the Camas School District Administration Center by no later than Wednesday, October 1, and will be forwarded to the School Board for appointment.

Thanks to WaferTech Employees!

Employees at WaferTech have demonstrated their generous support of our Camas scholars by donating essential school supplies for our students in need. For several years the staff at WaferTech have participated in this employee-driven cause.

Pictured above are CSD administrators accepting this gracious donation. Thank you for your support!

Lacamas Lake Cleanup

Join our community of service leaders in the annual Lacamas Lake Cleanup!

Saturday, September 18, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Meet at the Heritage Trail boat launch parking lot on Lake Road. Click here for more information.