McHenry Times

At their May 16 meeting, members of the District 155 School Board welcomed Shannon Podzimek, director of Communications & Community Relations, to share some recent achievements of students in the district.

The first student recognized was Sophia Salusa, a recent graduate of Carey Grove High School. She earned the Outstanding Student Technology Award in April on behalf of Infinite Tech, an organization that the district works with to best use technology to promote independent and inclusive learning in their classrooms. Salus is a homebound student who uses a mobile robot to have a physical presence in all of her classes and can participate in discussion and lectures through the communication software.

Podzimek also recognized the Academic Challenge team from Crystal Lake Central High School. The team took fourth place overall in the state competition, with two students winning first place in their individual sections. Anvish Khandeshi took first in Biology, and Seth White was the champion of the Computer Science division. They spoke to the board about their competition, which is a competition sponsored by Eastern Illinois University and pits the top STEM students in the state against each other in various competitions.

The final student recognition was for members of the Carey-Grove Musical Theater department. Their production of Mean Girls was nominated for Best Production.

"And we have two student performers who were nominated from over 200 student applicants," Podzimek told the board. "So I'm going to have both of you come forward. So over 200 student applicants from 71 participating high schools were narrowed down to 24 performers across the entire state of Illinois."

Teegan Sharkey was nominated for her role as Cady Heron in their production of Mean Girls, and Luke Skorija was nominated for his performance as George in Crystal Lake High School’s performance of Sunday in the Park with George. The two students made it into the top 24.