Lemoore High School gets the votes, earns $8,000 from The Follette Challenge for unique 'Senior Exit Day' video

Thursday, February 28, 2019 - 11:30am By Ed Martin, Editor

Lemoore High School's library won $8,000 in the recent Follett Challenge. The school received over 1,700 votes to finish in the top 10 in the country.

Lemoore needed a lot of votes for a shot at a national education contest (The Follett Challenge) and a chance at one of 13 prizes totaling some $200,000. The awards were for unique and inventive K-12 education programs.

The idea behind the contest was to get votes. The more votes, the better the chance of winning a prize.

Lemoore got the votes, a whole bunch of them – 1,762 to be exact. Lemoore High school, which submitted the requisite video, was one of 76 schools that entered the competition and won $8,000 from the Follett Challenge. Follette is the maker of software the Lemoore High School library uses for book circulation. The top 10 videos submitted by schools won $8,000.

Watch Lemoore High's winning video

Library Technician Catherine Zaharris wrote a grant for this competition based on a project that involved collaboration between students, staff and the community. The subject was the Lemoore High School Senior Exit Interview Day, where every senior at LHS participates and is required to pass a mock job interview. Over 400 students are interviewed in one day with the help of over 90 community volunteers.

The LHS multimedia class produced a video about Senior Exit Interview Day which had to be submitted along with the grant application. The school’s multimedia teacher, Matthew Boam, assigned the video production to one of his students, Matt Crisci.

Superintendent Debbie Muro and LHS Office Manager Diane Schuh assisted by editing the grant application.

“It was extremely gratifying to win one of the prizes in this national competition,” said Zaharris. “It was a lot of work, but it paid off in the end. I would like to thank everyone who voted, and for their support of our students and the library. It was a very close competition, and every vote made a difference.”

The $8,000 will be used to update the book collection and purchase other technology for students to enjoy in the library.

A list of all the winners:

People's Choice Winners

•Howard Middle School (Macon, GA)

•Gower School District 62 (Willowbrook, IL)

•Southwest Middle School (Palm Bay, FL)

•School City of Mishawaka (Mishawaka, IN)

J. Graham Brown School (Louisville, KY)

•Mineola High School (Garden City Park, NY)

•Clinton County Middle School (Albany, KY)

•Gov. William Pitkin Elementary School (East Hartford, CT)

•Lemoore Union High School District (Lemoore, CA)