The Lima City Schools on Tuesday unveiled its new Spartan Lunch Express van that will provide another way to get lunches to students over the summer.

The van will make stops beginning June 5 at various apartment complexes and parks. Children will receive a packaged meal to take with them.

The district will also continue to provide free lunches for children at several school buildings this summer through the Summer Food Program. These are eat-in sites.

Children and teens between the ages of one and 18 qualify for the summer meals. Children do not have to attend the Lima City Schools to get the lunches.

Meals will be available at the following locations from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays beginning June 5:

Heritage Elementary School, 816 College Ave.

Independence Elementary School, 615 Tremont Ave.

Liberty Arts Magnet School, 338 W. Kibby St.

Unity Elementary School, 925 E. Third St.

Lunches will be available through Aug. 3.

Spartan Lunch Express Stops

The Spartan Express will be at the following locations Mondays through Thursdays from June 5 to Aug. 3:

Lincoln Park: 11 to 11:20 a.m.

Faurot Park: 11:30 to 11:50 a.m.

MLK Park: 12 to 12:20 p.m.

Other Van (Children’s Hunger Alliance shelf-stable meals)

Lima West Apartments: 11 to 11:20 a.m.

Brower Road Apartments: 11:30 to 11:50 p.m.

Maplewood Apartments: noon to 12:20 p.m.

*There will be no lunches at schools or Spartan Lunch Express stops July 3 and 4.

During the May 16 Honors Banquet at Lima Senior High School, top academic honors where presented to students at each grade level from each department.

Teachers in each department decide on the award winners. Students did not know they won until the program.

The following were honored. They are listed in order from freshman to seniors.

English: Yarah Al-Hisah, James Brown, Nevaeh Moellering and Maggie Bloomfield

Math: Alyssa Merriman, Maria Ipina, Maya Parker and Kiana Hodges

Social Studies: Collin Schreiber, Abigail Antus, Nicholas Fosnaugh and Jacey Prior

Science: Isaac Grundisch, Anari Watts, Denver Engle and Keegan Halliday

Spanish: Leaven Johnson (Spanish 3) and Matilda Nelson (Spanish 4)

French: Dakota Lewis (French 3) and Alexis Raska (French 4)

Career Tech: Junior Ethan snow and Senior Kenneth Melton

Art: Eliot Spallinger, Nevaeh Fletcher, Hailey Hahn and Shire James

Music: Katherine Harkenrider, Jurisha Houseworth, Noelle Warnement and Emma Leach

In addition, about 225 students were recognized for being on the Honor Roll all school year.

The Lima City Schools’ next treasurer will be a familiar face to the district.

The school board voted Monday night to hire Heather Sharp to fill its vacant treasurer position. She replaces Shelly Reiff, who left the district in January. An interim has been with the district since.

Sharp worked for the Lima City Schools from 2002 until 2018. She began as an administrative assistant and in 2013, moved to the Treasurer’s Office, where she was the accounting supervisor.

Sharp left the district is 2018 to become the assistant treasurer at the Western Buckeye Educational Service Center in Paulding County. Most recently, she has been the assistant treasurer at the Allen County Educational Service Center.

The school board interviewed multiple candidates for the position. Sharp will begin May 22.

Surrounded by family members of jazz great Joe Henderson, Lima City Schools officials named and dedicated the auditorium at Lima Senior High school the Joe Henderson Auditorium.

Staff, students, Henderson family members and members of the community celebrated Joe’s life at a dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony April 27.

Joe graduated from South High School in 1953. It was a South music teacher who introduced him to the tenor saxophone. He was playing in Detroit with famous jazz musicians by the time he was 18 years old.

After college and serving in the U.S. Army, where he performed for the troops around the world, Joe moved to New York City and his illustrious career took off. He began recording with Blue Note Records, and his first album “Page One” was released in 1963.

Joe went on to have a 40-year career that saw him composing, recording and performing with jazz greats from around the world. He recorded his last album in 1997.

Nominated for six Grammy Awards, he won four. Joe, a member of the Lima City Schools Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame, passed away in 2001.

The night featured the Lima Senior Jazz Band being the first to play in the new Joe Henderson Auditorium and a video message from 2010 Lima Senior graduate and professional musician Brandon Monford – known in the music world as Sax B.

The night also included a proclamation from the Mayor’s Office and speeches from Henderson family members and school officials.

“The Lima City Schools has seen so many outstanding people graduate from our halls and go on to do amazing things, and Joe Henderson is among those at the top,” Superintendent Jill Ackerman said. “It is so fitting that our student musicians will now and forever perform on the Joe Henderson Auditorium stage.”

Ackerman also announced that thanks to the Lima City Schools Foundation, a Joe Henderson Scholarship will be awarded to a graduating music student beginning next school year.

“This stage hosts nearly 20 student concerts and productions a school year, with hundreds of students from throughout the district singing, playing an instrument and appearing in plays and musicals,: Ackerman said. “We think Joe would be proud of not only this move to name the auditorium after him, but also of the strong arts program at his alma mater today.”

The night concluded with the Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce doing a ribbon cutting outside the auditorium, where a commemorative plaque and painting of Henderson now hangs.

The “Young Joe Henderson” painting was created by artist Frederick J. Brown during a visit to Lima in 2008. He was here doing a residency with students in the Lima City Schools. Brown was a nationally known artist who did an extensive portrait series of jazz and blues musicians and had done a Henderson portrait before coming to Lima. Brown died in 2012