Sixth-grader Alec Liapis was selected to represent Gilbert's Towne Meadows Elementary School and the State of Arizona in Washington, D.C. this summer at the Junior National Young Leaders Conference.

The Gilbert Unified School District board on Tuesday approved the appointments of three principals and an assistant principal for the upcoming school year.

Four of Gilbert’s elementary schools leaped from "performing" to "excelling" in one year. Finley Farms, Islands, Playa del Rey and Towne Meadows elementary schools all made large gains in the percentage of students who excelled on Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards test last year, earning them the top label in a state report released Thursday.

Employees of Gilbert’s SAI Technology recently donated a truckload of school supplies that were distributed among six Gilbert Unified School District campuses. The “Tools for Schools” program was initiated by SAI Technology two years ago to ensure all students could come to school each day well-equipped to learn, regardless of economics.

Principal Kathy Burke would like to see after-school clubs for sewing, theater and science started at her Queen Creek school.

School district administrators in the East Valley are blaming a contradiction in education laws for a high number of schools failing to make “adequate yearly progress” under the federal No Child Left Behind requirement.

There's a collective sign of the times going on in East Valley school districts.

Ask an educator, and they probably will tell you they envision teaching fewer students.

Towne Meadows Elementary School starts off the 2008-2009 school year with an Olympics theme that will promote and enhance the school's positive learning atmosphere.

Nonda Chomokos, principal of Patterson Elementary School, staff member Amy Palermo of Towne Meadows Elementary School and teacher Mison Williams will be honored Friday during the Gilbert Education Foundation’s 10th anniversary dinner. The event will be held 6 p.m. at Villa Siena, 890 W. Elliot Road, Gilbert. Tickets are $60 per person and are available for purchase at www.gilberteducationfoundation.org.

Remaining motionless for an hour might have been the greatest challenge for the sixth-graders who created an ancient Egyptian wax museum for their fellow students at Towne Meadows Elementary School in Gilbert Unified School District.

Applications are available online for new, self-contained gifted classes that will be offered next school year in the Gilbert Unified School District.

A poem written by Elizabeth Martinez, a fifth-grader at Gilbert's Towne Meadows Elementary School, has been selected for The Gold Edition, a collection of poetry from top student authors all over the United States.

Leticia Ryan’s 27 students at Montessori Education Centre, a Mesa charter school, have 27 different reasons for liking their teacher. “She’s taught me algebra and long division — and I’m only in fourth grade,” Kelcie Seely said Thursday.

Leticia Ryan’s 27 students at Montessori Education Centre, a Mesa charter school, have 27 different reasons for liking their teacher. “She’s taught me algebra and long division — and I’m only in fourth grade,” Kelcie Seely said Thursday.