On Tuesday, March 23, a student playground summit was held at Opstad Elementary. Our LEAD (Learning Enhancement and Development) team has been working on a proposal to upgrade equipment on three playground areas at our school.

As part of the project, all students were surveyed about their favorite recess activities, equipment and each voted on a design for each of the three areas. Two student ambassadors from each grade level, led by Opstad principal John Jester and counselor Steve Bates, presented the survey findings and discussed the feedback they had received from their peers.

Our student ambassadors were: kindergarten, Ashley Stead and TJ Mandelkorn; first-grade, Muriel Woods and Lucas Currie; second-grade, Elizabeth Young and Gregory Malcom; third-grade, Joseph Williams and Sabrina Frost; fourth-grade, Jenny Green and Reece Karalus; and fifth-grade, Stevie Riley and Michael Grant.

The student ambassadors did an incredible job representing their classmates and we were all very impressed and proud of them.

We appreciated the attendance and participation of several of our community representatives including: Snoqualmie Valley School District Superintendant Dr. Richard McCullough; school board member Kristy Sullivan; chamber of commerce and HUB board member Fritz Ribary; director of Si View Metropolitan Park District Jessi Richardson; North Bend City Councilwoman Karen Tavenner; members of the Opstad PTA and the LEAD team; and several parents of student ambassadors.

The event was videotaped by Alex Anderson, an Opstad Video Club member and student.

The Opstad LEAD team would like to thank everyone who helped make our Student Summit a huge success.

Caroline Loudenback

North Bend