Frank Janaskie, Ft. Lake Middle School Principal, visits Sasama Daini Elementary School which is Fountain Lake’s Elementary Sister School currently serving 18 students within the first through six grades.
Three Hot Springs educators were selected to represent Hot Springs in Hanamaki, Japan, the Hot Springs Sister City.
Fountain Lake Middle School Principal, Frank Janaskie, Lake Hamilton’s ESL Coordinator Tracy Criss, and Lakeside High School science teacher, Mathew Balcolm, were the three applicants selected to visit Hot Spring’s Sister City, Hanamaki, Japan, and serve as delegates for Hot Springs and their designated schools.
During their seven-visit Janaskie, Criss, and Balcolm visited five different Japanese schools and attended meetings with the Hanamaki mayor, Ueda Toichi, and with the Superintendent of Education.
They also stayed several nights with Japanese host families who shared many sights that Hanamaki has to offer. They experienced—first hand—the education system and the way of life in Hot Spring’s Sister City and they plan to share the similarities and differences between the two cities with their schools and the communities.
To learn more about educators who would like to participate in the Sister City Exchange, contact Mary Zunick at hotspringssistercity@yahoo.com.
