Students from Robinson Elementary and Keysor Elementary took the top two spots respectively in the Area-Wide Elementary School Battle of the Books. This year’s competition featured teams of students from 14 area schools who competed asynchronously. Winners were announced during a Zoom presentation. Students from Nipher Middle School in the Kirkwood School District won the annual Area-Wide Middle School Book Battle on May 4. Teams of students from 26 area schools competed both virtually and in-person for this year’s trivia competition. For the competition, students answered questions about 20 different books. The books are a variety of genres and reading levels. The questions were written by the Area-Wide Middle School Book Battle committee. This year’s competition came down to a tie breaker round, where Nipher beat out Ladue Middle School for the top spot.
On May 10, the Kirkwood School District Foundation (KSDF) held the annual Named Awards Scholarship recipient ceremony. This year, $92,000 in scholarships were awarded to 40 students and recent graduates of Kirkwood High School. The Named Awards Scholarship program was created in memory or in honor of students, family and friends of the community. The scholarships are made possible from KSDF because of the generous support of our donors, especially donor families, Kirkwood parents, staff and alumni. Recipients completed an online application. Once the application process closed, the KSDF Named Awards Committee reviewed all applications to determine which students to interview. In March and April, the committee conducted interviews and selected the scholarship recipients. “Congratulations to each of the 2022 KSDF Named Award recipients,” said KSDF Named Award Chairman Dr. Derek Byers. “We are proud of you and all of your accomplishments. You all will represent Kirkwood well in the world, and hopefully some of you will come back to continue making this community even better. We especially thank all the generous donor families - those present tonight and not - who have made these awards possible. We are truly fortunate to be in a community where gifts like these truly make a difference to our students while also honoring the legacies of some very memorable Pioneers.”
The Glendale-Kirkwood Kiwanis Club presented each of the kindergarten students in the Kirkwood School District (KSD) with an early reader book as part of the service club’s Early Reader Program. The program was initiated in spring 2006 when the Glendale-Kirkwood Kiwanis Club gifted books to each of KSD’s 275 kindergarteners. This year, the club members gifted books to each of KSD’s 449 kindergarteners. Over the years, the Kiwanis Early Reader Program has become an annual “graduation” gift for KSD kindergartners and celebrates of the young students’ love of reading. The Kirkwood teachers selected the books from a list of age-appropriate books prepared by Kiwanis Club member Lynn Bosso from the Kirkwood Public Library. Glendale-Kirkwood Kiwanis Club Lynn Bosso delivered the books to Westchester Elementary on May 10. Kindergarten students at North Glendale, Tillman, Keysor, and Robinson will receive their books over the next week.
On Tuesday, May 10, 2022, two awards ceremonies were held. The first was the Kirkwood School District Foundation's presentation of named scholarship awards, which was held in the Donald Duchek Library at KHS, followed by the Senior Awards presentation in KHS' Keating Theater. Here are the scholarships and awards given on that night, followed by a list of awards/scholarships previously given at other events.
During a ceremony on Thursday, April 29, Kirkwood High School recognized 74 senior students who will receive 50% or more of their collegiate tuition paid for by scholarships.
The Kirkwood High School Mock Trial Team won the Missouri High School Mock Trial Competition. This year’s competition was conducted virtually the weekend of April 9-11 and the trials took place over Zoom. The state competition included 16 high schools from across the state. The teams qualified out of 66 teams who completed in opening rounds across the state.
The box tape project sculpture created by Kirkwood High School junior Elias Muraski was selected to represent the Missouri Senate District 2 in the state capitol as part of the annual Missouri Senate Hall Art Exhibit.
A committee with representatives from the Journalism Education Association, National Scholastic Press Association and Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society chose 14 First Amendment Press Freedom Award winners for 2021. The Kirkwood High School Journalism program is one of the 14 schools selected. The KHS Journalism program consists of three publications. The names of the programs and their student leaders are: The Kirkwood Call editors in chief are students Amara Harper, Amelia Hurley and Tom Mueller. The Pioneer (yearbook) editors in chief are students Julia Frankel, Audrey Scherr and Ainsley Wade, editors in chief. KHTV producer is student Thaddeus Morgan.
