Black Butte School celebrates spring

The spring program at Black Butte School (BBS) last week was all about art and music.

This school year, architect and designer Wendy von Kalinowksi introduced the children to the art of Leonardo da Vinci and the geodesic domes of visionary Buckminster Fuller, which was evidenced in the artwork they produced for the show. They also dissected the Mona Lisa and created their own creative versions.

A silent auction raised just over $1,000 to help fund Wendy's Master Artist & Designers Program.

Carol Dixon, lead teacher and language arts teacher for the upper grades, updated the crowd of parents and community members assembled at Camp Sherman Community Hall about current high school students' progress and introduced two graduates who were able to attend, Lonnie Fernandez and Megan Ellsworth.

Fernandez says she has become fascinated with painting and jewelry-making, and has been involved in The Americana Project at Sisters High School (SHS). Ellsworth has been teaching singing and guitar lessons at BBS and SHS, and put together the musical portion of the evening's program. She is also involved in the Americana Project and is creating a program for KZSO radio in Sisters (94.9 LP-FM). Both girls are maintaining about a 3.5 GPA.

Ethan Barron's lower-graders, who had been studying poetry the last couple of months, performed Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" as a fun way to tie it all together. The students used hand-painted signs of creatures from the poem created from their new understanding of color-mixing and color theory.

Mr. B said, "It's a short poem, but full of deep visualizing and tinkering as it is considered a nonsense poem. We think we nailed it!"

The upper-graders' song and dance routines, under the direction of Megan Ellsworth and their teacher Mr. P (Sam Pierce), took us back in time musically from "This Land is Your Land," a song originally from the 1940s, to Elvis' "Hound Dog," to the '70s with disco fever and "Stayin' Alive."

Shane Lundgren, a member of the BBS board and father of student Christopher, showed appreciation by acknowledging and thanking the teachers (Carol Dixon, Sam Pierce, Ethan Barrons, and Stephanie Blakelock) for all of their hard work and dedication, along with the support staff (Jennifer Severeide and Scott McNitt).

"We have a gold-mine here," he said, "and it's in full production."