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Over the past few weeks, a variety of community leaders and guests have visited our schools. Almost universally their comments focus on how warm and welcoming the schools feel. Our staff members often describe La Conner Schools as a family, a community, and we are so delighted that our guests picked up on the caring environment the staff works so hard to nurture each and every day. From social-emotional curriculum, lessons on caring, and opportunities to discuss challenging issues, to having a new “Braves Space” in the high school staffed by...
In the late 1970s, when I first came to live in Skagit County, it felt like coming home. That first view coming off the Conway Hill going north on I-5 brings that feeling. I have to admit that what brought me to that view point was a little more scientific. I was on my way to Anacortes. I had studied the area and Fidalgo Island was the closest landfall of the “rain shadow” from the Olympic Peninsula. I wanted to live in Western Washington, but in the least soggy parts. In the process of exploring the valley, I stumbled across La Conner. At the...
For fans of public radio, last Thursday offered the best of both worlds. Regular area listeners were able to see as well as hear the local afternoon broadcast of All Things Considered, the flagship news program of the National Public Radio (NPR) network, during a special three-hour KNKX (88.9) live session at the Mount Vernon city library. Over 100 people filed into the library’s reading room on a come-and-go basis to attend the Tacoma station’s broadcast, highlighted by on-air and pre...
A picture is worth a thousand words. But in the case of La Conner High hoops standout Justine Benson a thousand points is worth a photo op. Well worth it, in fact. The Lady Braves junior was honored with a huge ovation and presentation of a framed certificate upon reaching the career 1,000 point scoring plateau early in La Conner’s 63-8 rout of NW2B rival Concrete at Landy James Gym Friday night. Benson finished the night with 15 points, raising her nearly three-year point total to 1,010 e...
January’s rainfall of 1.42 is by far the lowest recorded since 2000. This month marked the second driest since 1994, when data started being collected. No rain was measured the last eight days of the month; no rain fell between Jan. 10 and 16. There were 20 days without rain and another five when precipitation measured 0.10 inch or less. Only two rain events totaled over 0.25 inches, with Jan 22 having the single highest precipitation, 0.62 inch. The only other January this century with less t...
Last week’s editorial considered the struggle at this moment of our elected Congress and President to represent “We the People” and pass a budget – the primary task in keeping our Ship of State moving forward. While the Republican leadership cannot distinguish campaign promises from serving the nation in our republican structure of government, Weekly News staff reviewers sought to make it a “capital R” republican in the editorial’s title, “Our republican government.” But “small r” is correct. So is “small d” democrat here at home,...
Folks attending Saturday’s open house for the new exhibit “Caldwell, Love & Hartsfield Family of Quilters” at the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum were able to hear about the 170 years of history and the five generations of women in Jim Tharpe’s family who made and stored the 12 quilts on display. Tharpe, from Seattle, acted as host and curator. He called the oldest quilt “the most important.” It was stitched in the 1850s by Ms. Molly, held as a slave in Tennessee. Tharpe explained t...
Director Ingrid Schwalbe offers gifts galore in the Whidbey Playhouse’s production of Tennessee Williams’ 1947 Pulitzer-winning “A Streetcar Named Desire,” opening Friday in Oak Harbor. She succeeds at placing you in New Orleans, with black and white photos rotating on the pull down screen between scenes and before the curtain rises showing a French Quarter that is as much 19th as 20th century. The cast’s southern accents ring true to these northern ears. Schwalbe recruited Valetta Faye, who sings jazz tunes during scene changes in a nod to the...
To preserve an important piece of Skagit magic, Lavone Newell-Reim and Cathy Stevens have teamed up to write a book about a key period in Skagit County’s art history. Starting in the late 1980s, they were involved with local artists participating every November in a phenomenon called “The Barn Shows.” These annual events showcased the most talented Skagit artists of that era. Lavone and her husband, Dick, hosted a preprint celebration of the book, approppriately named “The Barn Shows” on Jan. 2...
The Lantern (the school’s winter edition) only tells part of the story about taxes. The total tax for schools is made up of the enrichment levy, the bond levy, and the State levy parts I and II. The levy rates per thousand look like: Enrichment $1.5000 Bond $2.5515 State part I $1.7492 State part II $0.6968 Total $6.4975 If you own a home with an assessed value of $300,000, you will pay $1,949.25 in taxes for La Conner schools during 2019. The State tax part II is the new tax, called the McCleary solution, which is merely a tax shift. The o...
