Area high schoolers have peers around the state and nation singing — and typing — their praises.

The four high schools in the Bend-La Pine school district have been racking up awards recently in nonathletic events.

Summit High School’s student newspaper, The Eye of the Storm, won Oregon’s top honors for the second year in a row at Northwest Scholastic Press’s 2008 Publication Olympics this year.

The competition included more than 40 high school newspapers, and Summit’s newspaper was named “Best of Category” for all high school newspapers.

“What I like about having a strong program is that each year, when you name new editors-in-chief, they all know they have a lot to live up to,” adviser Karen Rosch said. “We want to continue the excellence, so I am very proud of them.”

Summit’s editors-in-chief, senior Reilly Noble and junior Maddy Dahl, were two of 22 Summit students who received individual writing, photography and layout awards. In addition, Noble, Tim Howe and Jennifer Edwards all received excellent ratings for their work during the National Scholastic Press Association Journalism Convention in Anaheim, Calif., in April.

Mountain View High School’s school newspaper, Viewpoints, also received many awards at the state competition. Sixteen students were honored for their work, and the staff received an honorable mention in the single issue category.

This year, the school switched from a tabloid format to a broadsheet that folds at the center like most daily newspapers, and adviser A.J. Tyvand said the paper looked more professional.

“At this point, I would take our paper up against any paper in the state,” Tyvand said. “We were pretty happy. We’ve never gotten feedback on a broadsheet newspaper before.”

In addition to successful school newspapers, Bend-area high school choirs and bands had a busy month as well.

In April, choir and band students from Mountain View and Bend High traveled to California to participate in regional Heritage Music festivals. At the festival in Anaheim, Mountain View’s concert choir and jazz choir received first place honors and the gold medal award in the second-largest division. The high school’s jazz band also took first place and won a gold medal award, with the highest instrumental score in the festival. The concert band finished in second place and also received a gold medal award.

According to Rick Plants, the activities director at Mountain View, the festivals are held around the nation and are scored consistently, so that any choirs or bands that receive a high score would receive the same score at a competition in New York or Chicago.

“About 15 percent of all schools receive a gold medal,” he said. “This is the kind of thing that all of us work for.”

Bend High students also fared well at the Heritage Music Festival in San Francisco. The Dynamics, the school’s 20-student vocal jazz ensemble, placed first in the vocal jazz AA division and received a gold medal award. The Chorale, which includes more than 50 students, placed third in the AA concert choir division.

“We do a lot in state, and Oregon has a good representation for choral music,” choral director Luke MacSween said. “This just reinforces that feeling that we’re doing the right thing from a national standpoint. We have great programs.”

And in La Pine, five students are headed to the Future Business Leaders of America national championships in June. At a Portland conference in April, 22 students competed and six of them received top honors. The students will travel to Atlanta in June to participate in the national conference.

“It’s really a great thing for La Pine,” co-adviser Steve Parnell said. “It really speaks volumes that we can compete at that level, that we’re every bit as good as anyone else in Central Oregon. And it’s also a great future for business in La Pine.”

The school also received the Oregon Chapter Membership Award because the school club’s membership jumped by nearly 50 percent.