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Having committed to a new K-12 math curricula that has already paid dividends in terms of improved student achievement, La Conner school board members Monday also reaped the benefits of that investment. The five-member panel was saluted as a School Board of Distinction among Washington state’s small enrollment districts for its embrace of the ambitious new math initiative and implementation of Professional Learning Communities, Universal Design for Learning and other innovative programs. The announcement was made via Zoom by Tricia Lubach, dire...
There will be cheers and tears at La Conner High School's home football game Friday. That's guaranteed regardless of the outcome. The former will be led, as always, by the cheer squad. The tears, on the other hand, will reflect the bittersweet acknowledgement that La Conner cheer sponsor Theresa James is stepping down from that assignment – one of several hats she wears for the school district – after a remarkable 30-year run. James is being honored for what district officials laud as her "as...
David and Lynette Cram are united in both marriage and their shared love of La Conner Schools, where they first forged career plans and were taught the value of public service. The Crams, both La Conner alumni, have since college taken on various leadership roles with their hometown school district, he twice on the administrative team and she as a coach, sports trainer and school board member. David Cram began his second tour as the La Conner Schools finance chief in March, enlisted to stanch a bleeding budget pierced by successive years of...
This completes the two-part look at Ramon Hayes time as La Conner's mayor For 16 years while mayor of the Town of La Conner, Ramon Hayes has championed the successes teamwork has created, deflecting attention from himself. He did it again in August at the La Conner Rotary Club's annual dinner and auction. When the chapter presented the Paul Harris Fellow recognition to him, a $1,000 contribution to the national Rotary Foundation in Hayes' name, he recognized another accomplishment. He – t...
It’s okay to feel scared and spooky in La Conner next Tuesday. In fact, it’s encouraged. That’s because Oct. 31 is Halloween, one of area residents’ favorite celebrations and the unofficial kickoff to the holiday season. The fun starts with the La Conner Parent-Teacher-Student Association costumed parade on First Street, at 3 p.m., after school. Parade participants are to meet immediately beforehand at the La Conner Marina south basin parking lot. The festive walking serpentine will start at the corner of First and State streets and proceed...
The new-look La Conner High School volleyball team rekindled memories of the recent past during two impressive matches last week. The net program, which has suffered heavy graduation losses in the wake of four straight state titles dating to 2018, flashed championship form with twin straight-sets triumphs over NW2B/1B rival Friday Harbor on the road and 3A Marysville-Getchell at home. The team defeated M-G 3-0 on Oct. 17 in its annual Dig Pink Senior Night event at Landy James Gym. Morgan Huizenga and Addison Keller fueled a comeback in the...
A solid ground game supported by a potent passing attack led by quarterback Ivory Damien wasn't enough for La Conner to defeat archrival Coupeville in the Braves' Homecoming football game at Jack Whittaker Field Friday night. Seeking its first NW2B triumph of the campaign, the team fell 43-12 to the Wolves despite a strong start that saw the Braves reel off a methodical nine-play touchdown drive on their first possession. C.J. Edwards capped the 46-yard march, which came after holding...
Town officials and La Conner residents have spent a long time discussing short-term rentals. Which has been part of the plan all along – and going forward. The needle inched further toward defining short-term rentals and reaching consensus on whether regulations governing them should be modified during an Oct. 17 forum at the Civic Garden Club attended by more than 30 people. "We were excited about the turnout," Assistant Planner Ajah Eills told the Weekly News afterward. "We hope that the m...
The candidates in La Conner's only contested 2023 election shared their views and personal backgrounds at a Skagit County League of Women Voters forum in Mount Vernon Monday night. John Agen, elected director in District 1 in 2019, is the La Conner school board's legislative liaison. Janie Beasley served a decade on the five-member governing body until 2019. Each shared prepared statements and answered a set of questions. Candidates for seats on the Sedro-Woolley and Mount Vernon school boards p...
The Oct. 10 La Conner Town Council meeting was full of comings and goings. Council will meet jointly with the planning commission Nov. 28 to hear a presentation from representatives specializing in paid parking systems. “This will give you information on what some of the options are,” Planning Director Michael Davolio told them Planning Commissioners John Leaver and Bruce Bradburn have spoken to two companies. They reported to the commission, noting Leavenworth and Bellingham have committed to paid parking. Town Emergency Management Com...
Since money doesn’t grow on trees, Town officials and the La Conner Chamber of Commerce hoped reversing the process might pay off in support of a civic beautification campaign. Alas, grants written to plant trees on Morris Street and remove trees and related cleanup work at Pioneer Park were not funded, so no money to repair the iconic salmon slide at Conner Waterfront Park, either. Chamber director Mark Hulst and Parks Commission Chair Ollie Iversen vowed last week to try again despite the competitive nature of applications. “We’ll conti...
The La Conner High School Lady Braves brought their ‘A’ game to the soccer pitch Saturday. Actually, they brought their better than ‘A’ game. Lydia Grossglass took a well-placed pass from Kendall Lee to break a scoreless tie and forge a thrilling 1-0 La Conner non-league triumph at 1A Sultan, taking the sting out of twin 5-0 setbacks earlier in the week to Friday Harbor and at North Mason. “I’m so proud of the team for performing at such a high level with back-to-back-to-back away games,” Lady Braves coach Maddie Huscher said after her cha...
When Port of Skagit officials unveiled preliminary plans last year for long-range re-development at La Conner Marina, workforce housing was a key variable for future investment. Port leadership emphasized that its maritime tenants are engaged in growth industries and will better expand their labor forces to meet market demands when more local housing is available. Consider American Tugs, on Pearle Jensen Way, a boatbuilding firm whose top-of-the-line pleasure craft feature rugged hulls like...
Ted Taylor is fondly dubbed “Captain Catastrophe” because of his persistent calls for local emergency preparedness. But the Skagit County Fire District 13 captain and emergency management coordinator might more accurately be called a realist. That is especially true this week after the magnitude 4.3 earthquake centered south of Port Townsend that struck Sunday night and was felt in La Conner households and other locales throughout Western Washington. Numerous La Conner area residents reported that the quake rattled furniture, some likening it...
The eyes of Olympia were on La Conner Schools last week focusing on the district's innovative approach to assessing student learning. And state leaders visiting the local campus liked what they saw. State Sen. Lisa Wellman, chair of its early learning and K-12 education committee and Alissa Muller, director of the state board of education's mastery-based learning collaborative, met with students and staff here Oct. 4 to view and receive feedback on the La Conner district's mastery-based...
Emergency management is more than a hot current topic. It will have great significance in the future as well. Which is why Skagit County Fire District 13 Capt. Ted Taylor is proposing that local schools consider teaching their students important community emergency response skills. Taylor floated the idea during the fire district’s 90-minute monthly meeting at the Snee-Oosh Road station Oct. 5. He reported on a well-received presentation he gave in September as the district’s emergency management coordinator on preparedness for natural dis...
The status of short-term rentals in La Conner tops the agenda of a special 6 p.m. Oct. 17 public forum at the La Conner Civic Garden Club. “It will be a specific and targeted meeting,” Town Assistant Planner Ajah Eills said at the planning commission’s meeting Oct. 3 in Maple Hall. The meeting addressing short-term rentals will not be hybrid since there is no WiFi service at the Second Street building. “We think it will be more of a conversational setting,” Eills said. “We’re hoping for a more intimate conversation.” The question of whe...
The traffic volume in town last weekend teased that it was the height of tourist season. That wasn't the case, of course.. But it was a peak weekend in terms of La Conner High School's fall sports schedule. The football and volleyball teams played simultaneously on campus Saturday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the Braves' boys soccer team hosted league rival Mount Vernon Christian. Results were mixed. The La Conner grid program broke into the win column with a convincing 30-0 shutout win...
As a youth whose World War II veteran father was a booking agent in the entertainment industry, Ramon Hayes grew up familiar with the celebrities who gained fame amid the emerging new world of television. "I was invited to Liberace's birthday party," Hayes, 54, recently recalled with a chuckle. "I didn't attend." Hayes was perhaps reflecting on how later in life as a long-serving public official, he would be called upon to make decisions of far greater importance. "I like to think of myself as...
Southern hospitality La Conner-style was on the menu at the La Conner Marina Friday night. A sold-out crowd enjoyed favorite dishes from farm and sea during the inaugural Skagit Tidewater Boil fundraiser for Genuine Skagit Valley, the organization established in 2013 to recognize the area's unique agricultural heritage. Literally taking a page from the Gulf Coast's famed southern crab boils, with prawns, spicy sausage, sweet corn, red potatoes and Dungeness crab dumped onto the two dozen tables...
Town Emergency Management Commission chair Bill Stokes spoke glowingly last week of how fast La Conner's public works department has acquired and made ready for use a variety of flood barriers ahead of peak king tide season. "Things are moving quickly, as quick as I've seen anything move around here," Stokes, a former town council member, told commission members during their Sept. 26 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. Within days of receiving council approval, pre-filled sandbags and Ecology Blocks...
Money talks. But last week it was Town officials who did the talking – about money, it turns out. Town Council members kicked off the 2024 budget season with a special 5 p.m. Sept. 26 hybrid meeting at Maple Hall. Public works director Brian Lease and Fire Chief/Code Enforcement Officer Aaron Reinstra presented their budgets. Council is addressing two rare anticipated line-item shortfalls: the streets and facilities funds. Delaying purchase of additional speed cushions like those in use on Talbott and Center streets could reduce the streets b...
Orange is a color that has long linked the La Conner and Swinomish communities, perhaps never more so than now, 66 years after the Rainbow Bridge was built. That was much in evidence Friday afternoon when La Conner students, most wearing bright orange shirts bearing the phrase "Every Child Matters," gathered at Whittaker Field to pay homage to victims and survivors of the Indian Residential School era. Superintendent Will Nelson, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, said the annual fall event...
It's often said in sports that the best defense is a good offense. For the youthful La Conner High School volleyball team, which carries three eighth graders – Nora McCormick, Abi Poulton and Reese Bird – on its nine-player roster, the opposite is the case. The Lady Braves, adjusting to heavy graduation losses from its state championship net program, have transitioned this fall from a power hitting team to relying on solid defense and crisp passing. They worked that new approach to good eff...
The La Conner High School boys’ soccer team defeated Grace Academy 3-1 Friday at home for the Braves’ second straight triumph, improving to 2-3 on the campaign going into a big match with NW2B/1B power Mount Vernon Christian Friday, Oct. 6. Coach Galen McKnight’s charges will look to square their season ledger when they host the Hurricanes in a 4 p.m. start. MVC sports a 6-2-1 mark entering this week’s play, having most recently tied St. Georges of Spokane 2-2, blanked Friday Harbor 1-0 and dropped a tough 1-0 decision to Orcas Island. Hurrica...
