MARYSVILLE — Preston Lawrence is still in third grade, but the Grove Elementary student already has his career path planned out for when he grows up.
“I want to be a scientist,” Lawrence said on March 4, in between poring over the pages of his new dictionary. “But to do that, I need to know the definitions of words, so I’ll know what they mean when I study them.”
Lawrence and every other third-grade student in the Marysville School District got a leg up on their adult aspirations on March 4, when more than 45 Marysville Rotarians distributed more than 1,200 full-color hard-bound dictionaries to the district’s 13 elementary schools as part of their seventh annual “Dictionaries in a Day” program.

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MARYSVILLE — A group of community members who are concerned with equity in education approached the Marysville School Board about forming a partnership.
Members of “OUR Marysville” — with “OUR” standing for “Organization United for Reform” — attended the Board’s March 7 workshop meeting, with poster-board signs in hand, to request that the Board pass a resolution calling on Olympia to cut tax breaks for banks and redirect those monies toward public education.

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MARYSVILLE — Jon Nehring admitted that he’s hesitant to promote himself, but fortunately for him a host of friends and acquaintances were willing to do so on his behalf.
Nehring kicked off his campaign to retain his seat as Marysville’s mayor on March 8, and was joined by community members ranging from Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick to Arlington Mayor Margaret Larson.

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Area eighth-graders got a hands-on lesson on the importance of trees to the local environment, thanks to the city of Marysville and the Stilly-Snohomish Fisheries Enhancement Task Force.

Cedarcrest Middle School science teacher Kirby Schaufler escorted 122 of his eighth-grade students to the Northpointe and Strawberry Fields Athletic parks in Marysville on March 1 and 2 as part of the Task Force’s Tree Connections program. Task Force Education Specialist Abby Kuranz explained that the Tree Connections program taught the eighth-graders about the recreational, economic and ecological benefits of trees through lessons that started in the classroom.

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TULALIP — Tulalip youths transformed an area frequently targeted by vandals into a canvas to express their dreams, and Tribal elders and leaders alike took notice.
The Big Shot – Cyrus James Overpass next to the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club has seen its share of graffiti, and then some, but artist Andrew Morrison worked with Tribal youths in the New Directions Music & Arts Program after school through the fall and winter months to deter “taggers” with a mural that would speak to the young artists’ hopes and heritage.
On Feb. 3, two of the more than two-dozen Tulalip youths who’d been among the most active contributors to this art project were honored, as the mural was officially unveiled.

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MARYSVILLE — For some defendants who find themselves sentenced to jail time, anything is better than sitting behind bars.
The Marysville Police Department operates an Electronic Home Monitoring program that provides an alternative to incarceration for low risk, non-violent offenders with little or no prior criminal history, allowing offenders to live at home while serving their sentences.
The program has been used to varying degrees over the past 15 years on a half-time basis, but got a huge boost in 2010 when the original EHM program founder, Russ Irvin, and fellow Custody Officer Monte Wallace were chosen to run it full-time. In January of this year, they moved to new offices housed in the Marysville Municipal Court, where a significant portion of their responsibilities also include courthouse and courtroom security, as well as bailiff duties.

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