Board of Education celebrates spring awards and honors

Student awards and recognitions

• Naveah McClendon was recognized for being a regional winner of the MSBA FutureBuilders Student Scholarship.
• Students who earned seats in the prestigious Missouri All-State Orchestra, Band and Jazz Band. Students included Nathan Bauer, Carter Chen, Gavin Chiles, Maxwell Willoughby, Joaquin Saldaña, Noah Dehler, Anabel Espinal, Harris Falk, Isaiah Smith, Lucia Mariscal, Althea Althauser, Emily Royalty and Cole Hathaway.
• Members of KH Players who were a part of the cast and crew of Middletown. This production was the mainstage performance of the Missouri State Thesbian Conference.
• Westchester Elementary robotics teams Spark Attack and Dynomite and North Kirkwood Middle School robotics teams The Aliens, ThunderGear and Come Back Later were recognized for earning spots to represent Kirkwood on the global stage at the World Robotics Championships, which took place in April.
• Student journalists were recognized for earning awards through the National Federation of Press Women's High School Communications At-Large Contest, the Quill and Scroll Writing, Visual, and Multimedia Contest, and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association 2026 Gold Circle Awards.
• Six Kirkwood High School students who earned national recognition as 2026 winners in C-SPAN’s annual StudentCam documentary competition were recognized. They include Tripp Somerville, Trip Nieman, Luisa Marietta, Bennett Roettger, Daphne Wassel and Isaiah Smith.
• Griffin Posnanski was recognized for his seventh-place finish at the Missouri Scholastic Esports Federation (MOSEF) State Playoffs in Varsity Mario Kart 8 Time Trials.
• Jack Bruno was recognized for earning an all-expenses-paid summer study trip to Germany after scoring in the 91st percentile on the Level 4 2026 National German Exam for High School Students sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG). Jack is one of 36 outstanding students selected from across the US to receive the award.
• Two Kirkwood High School students were recognized for receiving perfect composite scores of 36 on the ACT. Sienna Staten, a recent graduate, and Luka Artomov, a sophomore, both earned perfect composite scores of 36 on the ACT, an achievement claimed by only a fraction of 1 percent of the students who take the test.

Staff honors

The Board honored the following outstanding staff members:

• Representatives from North Kirkwood Middle School and Kirkwood High School libraries for earning the distinction of Exemplary School Library Program from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The Kirkwood High School Library was also selected as the 2026 Outstanding School Library Program by the Missouri Association of School Librarians.
• Educators who earned their National Board Certification (NBC), the highest credential in the teaching profession. Teachers who marked this accomplishment this year are Courtney Wells, a kindergarten teacher at Tillman Elementary School; Jennifer Bartin, Library Media Specialist at Keysor; and Stephanie Byrne, an Instructional Specialist at Keysor Elementary.
• Members of the District Emergency Response Team, who earned the Heart Safe School designation by developing and implementing a comprehensive Cardiac Emergency Response Plan for all schools.
• Representatives from North Kirkwood Middle School for being named as a 2026 State and National School of Character.
• Conner Westermayer, a Teacher Assistant at Robinson Elementary, who recently administered the Heimlich to a choking student.

Special graduation ceremony

To close the evening, the Board held a special ceremony for recent KHS graduates. Because these students attended the National High School Mock Trial Championship in Des Moines on May 8-9, they missed graduation. Dr. Courtney Ford, senior class principal, and Dr. Seth Harrell, KHS principal, presented Bennett Harman, Michael Simkins, Charlie Thornton and Savannah Zehnder with their degrees.

For photos from the event, visit our Facebook feed.