OLYMPIA — As they launched into their full-fledged pandemic legislative session earlier this month, lawmakers in Washington state had no shortage of education issues to sort through.
The launching of Pinnacles Prep charter school in Wenatchee creates an opportunity for our communities to see the impact of a different learning environment than a traditional K-12 approach — one that is focused on individualized learning, fostering strong relationships between students, tea…
Rufus Woods
Publisher Emeritus
EAST WENATCHEE — Eastmont middle school students came back to school this week on a hybrid schedule. That is grades five, six, and seven.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
WENATCHEE — At 1 p.m. on Wednesday, the 30 libraries of the NCW Libraries system closed their doors to in-person visits, per new state guidelines. The system has libraries in Chelan, Douglas, Okanogan, Grant and Ferry counties.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
WENATCHEE — More students started coming back to school in the Wenatchee School District this week for hybrid learning.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
EAST WENATCHEE — Some students in the Eastmont School District could be attending a different school next year.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
WENATCHEE — Turnout in the last presidential election was huge across the country — including in the Wenatchee area. That fact is working against the upcoming Wenatchee School District Educational Program and Operation Levy.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
ELLENSBURG — The Central Washington Board of Trustees announced the appointment of the university’s 15th president, Dr. Jim Wohlpart, Thursday, after an extensive search that included listening sessions with students, alumni, faculty and board members.
WENATCHEE — It’s not unusual for school districts to have a bus driver shortage — at the beginning of the school year. But when the shortage happens in the middle of the school year, you can bet it is pandemic-related.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
WENATCHEE — Touched by the suicide of a high school student, Kamryn Fowler decided to do something. A Wenatchee High School senior, she was really worried about the mental health of her peers during the pandemic.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
The Community Foundation of NCW is now accepting scholarship applications for students who plan to attend community college, university or trade school next fall.
WENATCHEE — Wenatchee Valley College recently ripped out an old maple tree near historic Wells House because it was diseased. The college plans to replace it with a native variety.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
SPOKANE — With spring semesters either pending or underway, college administrators across the region have devised plans to prepare their campuses for any students returning amid the coronavirus pandemic.
SEATTLE — In December, Aisha Gonzalez lived for her 18th birthday, for its promise to unlock her future.
WENATCHEE — Wednesday’s polarizing events at the Capitol will be looked at and studied by college students and historians for decades. It was a moment unlike any other in our nation’s history.
Zach Johnson
Sports Reporter
SPOKANE — Most college students are accustomed to letter grades ranging from A to F.
WENATCHEE — A new charter school in Wenatchee is now a step closer to reality as Pinnacles Prep took over management of the Community Center Campus, 504 S. Mission St., on Jan. 1.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
CHICAGO — More than half of Chicago Public Schools teachers who were expected to return to schools Monday did not show up, CEO Janice Jackson said.
Humanities Washington convened an interesting and provocative online discussion about controversial public monuments and ways we might think about whether they remain as is, whether they should be reinterpreted given today’s understanding or whether there are cases in which they should be mo…
Rufus Woods
Publisher Emeritus
OMAK — Okanogan County Commissioners have appointed Jill Sheley to replace Jim Brucker as the Okanogan County representative on the NCW Libraries board of trustees.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
LEAVENWORTH — The Cascade School District is planning a pair of levies for the Feb. 9 ballot: a four-year educational programs and operations levy and a four-year technology and safety levy. Both levies need 50% or greater to pass.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
BELLINGHAM — The internal audit office at Western Washington University is tasked with investigating and preventing legal and financial risk. But it has instead become the epicenter of sudden firings, lawsuits and even a police escort from a board of trustees meeting in recent years.
SEATTLE — A company that illegally charged Washington students for a COVID-canceled trip to Europe will have to pay nearly a half-million dollars in refunds, according to state Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office.
The Executive Board of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association is set to make a decision on the start of high school sports in the state next week.
We have been hearing a lot lately by politicians and pundits about the damage our children are experiencing because of the COVID pandemic and how our educational system should be ramped up so that kids might catch up.
Rufus Woods
Publisher Emeritus
WENATCHEE — Sure, big-time professional companies can produce a virtual choir, but can a small-town music teacher do the same thing?
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
OLYMPIA — The state of Washington will use federal coronavirus relief funds to pay close to 100,000 unemployment recipients this week, a move Gov. Jay Inslee says is necessitated by lack of additional assistance from Congress.
Washington received its first batch of coronavirus vaccines last week, but vaccine makers have only just started testing the group that will likely be the last inoculated: children.
SPOKANE — Despite the COVID-19 pandemic but partly because of it, Washington’s high school seniors graduated at record rates last spring.
WENATCHEE — More virtual programming and digital entertainment options are on the way to NCW Libraries thanks to another $3,000 in CARES Act funding distributed through the Washington State Library.
Nevonne McDaniels
Reporter
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Miguel Cardona, the Connecticut schools chief who has advocated for reopening schools amid the coronavirus crisis, as his pick for secretary of education, a person familiar with the matter said.
ELLENSBURG — The first program in the nation that will recognize work and apprenticeship experience to earn a bachelor’s degree is launching through a partnership between Central Washington University and Renton Technical College, according to the lieutenant governor’s office.
WENATCHEE — When the winter weather turns nasty in the Wenatchee area, Wenatchee School District officials have decided there will be no two-hour delays, but rather all schooling will be moved online.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
OLYMPIA — The day after Gov. Jay Inslee nudged Washington's school districts to reopen their buildings, he asked lawmakers for $400 million to mitigate what's become known as learning loss — despite not knowing how much students have fallen behind.
OLYMPIA — Washington students, particularly those not yet in high school, could soon be returning to the classroom.
CASHMERE — When students at Cashmere High School came back to school three weeks ago, Principal Tony Boyle thought they would be all over each other having not seen one another in so long. But that has not been the case as they've respected each other's space, per COVID-19 protocols.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
WENATCHEE — Wenatchee Valley College students can receive free lift tickets and equipment rentals through a partnership between the college and The Jack and Edna Maguire Recreation Center.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
WENATCHEE — Wenatchee High School administrators knew students were going to struggle with remote learning. They saw it in the data from last spring.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
EAST WENATCHEE — Like other school districts around the state, Eastmont is feeling the pinch when it comes to bus drivers. Some older drivers are choosing not to drive due to COVID-19 risks.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
EAST WENATCHEE — The Eastmont School District will move away from an AM/PM schedule once secondary students start coming to campus. In this new schedule, students would go to full-day school every other day instead of half-day every day with the AM/PM schedule.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
PHILADELPHIA — In their last days in office, Trump administration officials are trying to reduce nutrition requirements for school meals, seeking to undo changes initiated by the Obama administration a decade ago.
WENATCHEE — The Wenatchee School District plans to bring back all students for hybrid learning by Jan. 26.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
OLYMPIA — New data offers a sobering look at how school closures during the pandemic have affected child welfare reporting.
WENATCHEE — Health and safety challenges are having such an impact on staffing in the Wenatchee School District, it is causing the school board to slow down on bringing more students back to the classroom on a part-time basis.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
ZILLAH — Families of Hilton Elementary School students spent eight days getting to know their kids' teachers before serious academic work began through distance learning this Fall.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court refused to question school district policies that let transgender students use bathrooms aligned with their gender identity, rejecting an appeal from parents who said the privacy rights of other students are being violated.
EAST WENATCHEE — The first four weeks of online school for the Eastmont freshmen was not looking good. By the fourth week, district staff received the demoralizing news that 241 freshmen were failing at least one class.
Ian Dunn
Education Reporter
The Washington Apple Education Foundation (WAEF) scholarship application is currently open and available to students raised in tree fruit industry families with plans to attend college in the fall of 2021.
SEATTLE — A dip in applications for financial aid tells a troubling story about which and how many Washington students are making plans to pursue — and get help paying for — education after high school.
PASCO— Pasco teachers are calling on the school board to move elementary students back online as COVID-19 cases continue to climb.
