Downey

The Downey Unified School District will hold a Middle School Academic Olympics from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at Downey High School.

The district’s four middle schools have each selected two students from sixth, seventh and eighth grades to participate in the competition in science, mathematics, reading, speech and writing.

Edward Sussman, director of secondary instruction for the district, said Downey was the first district in the county to initiate an academic competition at the middle-school level. A countywide academic decathlon is held every year for high school students, he said, but no such event had existed at the junior high or middle school level before Downey held its Academic Olympics in 1984.

About 500 persons attended last year’s event in Downey, he said.