ST. LOUIS PARK

Public hearing set on school closings A public hearing will be held on Thursday for parents and others interested in commenting on the St. Louis Park School District's plan to close at least one school building.

The school board is considering closing as many as four buildings owned by the district.

As a result, some schools would have new grade-level configurations and some programs would relocate to other buildings.

School leaders are looking to save money on overhead costs by reducing the number of buildings at a time when enrollment is not growing.

The public hearing will take place at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Room C350 at St. Louis Park Senior High, 6425 W. 33rd St., St. Louis Park.

A vote on the proposed school closings is scheduled to take place at the Feb. 22 school board meeting.

WEST METRO

Dance team results from state tourney At the Minnesota State Dance Team tournament at Target Center this past weekend, several area schools earned high marks.

In the Class 3A Jazz competition, Wayzata took home its second consecutive championship and fourth in the past five years. Maple Grove came in second, while Chaska earned fifth place.

In Class 2A, Benilde-St. Margaret's in St. Louis Park and Holy Angels in Richfield took second and sixth, respectively.

In the High Kick category, Maple Grove took home its first Class 3A championship after a runner-up finish last year, while Holy Angels and Benilde-St. Margaret's finished second and sixth, respectively, in Class 2A.

HOPKINS/FRIDLEY

Local students win video contest Two high school students from the Twin Cities recently were on the winning team in a national video production contest that featured recording star Usher.

Naja McComb, a junior at Fridley High School, and Jack Anderson, a Hopkins High senior, were on the winning team for the Body by Milk Got Noise program.

The program gave teens nationwide a chance to create a music video for Usher.

Anderson and McComb were among the 20 teens selected from more than 5,000 applicants. The 20 students traveled to Los Angeles last December and divided into two teams, each one creating a video for Usher's new song, "More."

Last month, the videos for each team were posted on the Internet, and viewers were invited to vote for their favorite.

Of the 211,413 votes cast, the video that Anderson and McComb helped make received 54.8 percent of the votes, according to contest organizers.

The winning team received Apple computers, production software and tickets to an upcoming Usher concert.

ALLIE SHAH

MICHAEL RAND