Congratulations are in order to the 6,655 senior high school students who were graduated from district schools this June. Commencement and promotion activities, including the Serra High School ceremony, shown, were held at on June 13 and 14, 2003.

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Scripps Ranch High School's Academic League won the Regional Tournament of the 21st annual National Academic Championship. The four-day tournament is a college bowl-type academic competition in which 27 teams are awarded points for correctly answering questions covering all academic fields, sports and pop culture. Scripps Ranch qualified for the National Academic Championship by winning both the city- and county-level championships. The Falcons posted an impressive 6-1 record during the tournament, recovering from an early-round stumble to win their final five matches, including a victory over top-seeded Brookwood (Georgia) High School in the championship match. The Scripps Ranch squad consisted of seniors Cate McGuire and Josh Patashnik; juniors Devin Alavian, Sean Selphey and James Zou; and coaches Tom Ihlbrock and Tom Draganski. Scripps Ranch becomes one of three finalists competing in the National Academic Championship Tournament in St. Louis.

Spreckels Elementary School has lots of kid kudos to share! Sage Hagstrom was selected to be the delegate to represent California at the 2nd Annual Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Kids' Summit Essay Contest. He wrote (in less than 200 words) how to save the Pacific Pocket Mouse (it is believed that there are only 40 left in California). Sage also won, along with classmates Emily Kurtz and Titiana Toronto, an essay contest for the Friends of the SD Public Library. They were invited to a celebration at Sea World. Tammy Tran, Jennifer McConnell, Ilya Gaidarov and Or Weizman represented Spreckels at the Elementary Math Field Day Competition and walked away with several medals.

Sunset View Elementary students raked in the loose change during their annual "Penny Round Up!" Together, students, staff, friends and family donated 55,702 pennies. That, combined with $764.98 in "stomp money" (all other loose change and idle bills), the Round Up brought in $1,322.00. The money will go toward new bleacher risers for the auditorium.

Eight students from across the district have been recognized as members of the Padres Scholars Class of 2003. Sydney Tolan (Muirlands), Christina Khavarian (Preuss), Dina Ali (Pershing), Yusem Garcia (Wilson), Julica Evans (Standley), Charles Jock (O'Farrell), John Beck (Bell), and Ernesto Galvin (Monroe Clark) were introduced on the field before the Padres-Twins game on June 7.