Kirkwood Students, Schools Receive Top Honors

The Kirkwood Board of Education honored the achievements of some of the district's most successful students and teachers Monday evening.

Among the awards and honors presented at the meeting were the recipients of named scholarships from the Kirkwood School District Foundation. Fifteen students received scholarships and grants, each named for donors to the foundation.

Some of the scholarships benefit students pursuing degrees in art, music, education and other areas, while others focus on academic achievement, financial need or extracurriculars. The students received their awards in a ceremony earlier that evening at North Kirkwood Middle School.

Keysor Elementary School was named a 2011 Missouri Gold Star School, making it the fourth Kirkwood School District school to receive the distinction. Eight elementary schools in the state receive the award each year from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, for showing significant success in curriculum, instruction and leadership while also working with a significant proportion of disadvantaged students.

Keysor also was recommended for the No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools Award, presented by the U.S. Department of Education in the fall.

Also recognized at the school board meeting Monday evening were five students who recently competed in the National History Day Competition. Out of the 12 Kirkwood High School students who qualified for the state competition, only five of them were able to attend, due to a scheduling conflict.

The projects required extensive research and were judged on historical quality, clarity and relation to the theme: debate and diplomacy. The five students present at the meeting introduced their projects to the school board and talked about why they chose to study the topics they did.

• Claire Salzman place first in regionals and fourth at state for her exhibit, "Peace in the Middle East? The Camp David Accords."
• Anna Brodersen, a sophomore, placed third in regionals and fifth at state for her exhibit, "Sinking Baby Teeth Into Nuclear Testing."
•  Joe Weber, a junior, placed second in regionals for his exhibit on the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War, but was unable to attend the state competition because he was taking the ACT test that weekend.
• Max Kramer did a performance presentation on the 1945  Yalta Conference, in which he acted out the parts of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. He placed first in regionals, but was unable to go to state, again because he was taking the ACT.
•  Hanna Nailor, a junior, competed in the website division, with a project titled "Hollywood Ten: An Attack on Liberty," about the Red Scare in the 1950s. She placed second in regionals and third in the state, and is one of Kirkwood's two students who will go on to the national competition.

For information about the recent achievements of other Kirkwood students and organizations, including athletics, science, choir and journalism, see the attached PDF.