School notes

STATEWIDE

BY KIDS FOR KIDS: "Design Squad" is PBS' engineering and design show. It is launching a contest April 1 through June 30 that is open to kids of all ages and features a grant prize of $10,000. The contest challenges students to design something that moves people or things, that kids can play with or that protects the environment. All designs must be made from discarded or recycled materials.

For information, visit www.bkfk.com/modules/competition/new_competition/trashtotreasure.htm.

ART AUDITIONS: The N.C. School of the Arts will begin holding auditions and interviews this week for students interested in attending this fall.

The N.C. School of the Arts is a residential high school in Winston-Salem for dance, drama, music and visual arts.

The Visual Arts program for juniors and seniors will hold interviews Friday and April 4, 11 and 18.

The School of Dance will hold auditions for grades eight through 12 on April 19 and July 11.

The School of Drama program for seniors will hold auditions April 5, 12 and 19. Selected candidates will be interviewed between April 23 and May 16.

The School of Music will hold auditions for grades nine through 12 on April 11 and May 2. Brass applicants should call (336) 770-3260 to schedule an audition.

For more information, send e-mail to admissions@ncarts.edu, go to www.ncarts.edu or call (336) 770-3290.

WAKE COUNTY

FUNDRAISER: Students at East Wake High School will be selling T-shirts and holding an April 12 recycling drive at the school to help raise $14,000 to buy a PlayPump for a school in Africa by June. The pumps clean water from an underground aquifer.

For more information, visit www.ewhs.wcpss.net.

MATHLETES: Three Ligon Middle School students will represent North Carolina in the MATHCOUNTS National Competition.

Nick Tobey, Allen Yang and Calvin Deng finished, respectively, first, second and third at the state finals earlier this month to make the state team. Tobey and Yang are eighth-graders, and Deng is a seventh-grader at the Raleigh magnet school. They'll be joined by a student from Charlotte.

Ligon also won the team competition at the state level. This means that Rohan Lewis, a math teacher at Ligon, will coach the students at the nationals, which will be held in Denver in May.

DURHAM COUNTY

HATS OFF: Kenneth Barnes, principal of Shepard Middle School, was recently named the N.C. Middle School Association's Region 3 Administrator of the Year. Barnes has been principal of Shepard since 2005. Last year, Shepard was named a School to Watch by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform.

MORE HONORS: Myra G. Scott, a kindergarten teacher at Holt Elementary School, has received a Lucile Cornetet Individual Award for professional development from the Delta Kappa Gamma Educational Foundation. As a result, she will attend a conference for elementary educators in New Hampshire this spring.

ORANGE COUNTY

TECHNOLOGY STUDENT ASSOCIATION: Members of Technology Student Association chapters at McDougle Middle, Smith Middle, Chapel Hill High School and Carrboro High School of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district participated March 7 in the Central/Southwest Regional TSA Conference at Richmond Senior High in Rockingham. A number of students from the four schools won competitions in various categories. Winners will compete at the 29th Annual North Carolina TSA State Conference in Greensboro April 13-15.

TEACHER IN ROME: Smith Middle School Latin teacher Greta Moseley has been selected to attend the Classical Summer School program at the American Academy in Rome and Cumae June 16 through Aug. 9.

To submit information online about school-related events and achievements, go to share.triangle.com and click on "schools" and then the "school news" link. For more information, call Becky Beach at 829-4629 or send news to The News & Observer, 215 S. McDowell St., Raleigh, NC 27601.