Archive for December, 2012

The public just got its first look this week at the sites that could be the home of a new county jail.

St. Paul’s Academy teacher David Fayram is already incorporating the issue into his high school geography class. The class is working on urban geography right now, so Fayram has broken the class up into three groups, with each one studying one of three sites preferred by the county. One is west of LaBounty Drive near Sunset Avenue; one is at Pacific Highway Northwest Avenue; and one is in the 4200 block of Hannegan Road.

The students will read consultant reports for each site and try to persuade a student panel of which site is best, based on a variety of geographic criteria.

It seems like an interesting way to combine current events into a lesson plan. What do you think?

Students and staff and Bellingham High School seem to have one request today: for Oprah Winfrey to come to their school.

The Bring Oprah to Bellingham High School Facebook page started Wednesday, Dec. 5, and by that afternoon it had nearly 150 likes.

According to the  page, Oprah is speaking in Vancouver, B.C., Jan. 24, and the group is hoping she’ll make a pit stop at Bellingham High School to talk to the student body.

Dozens of students were also tweeting #BringOprahtoBellinghamHighSchool at Oprah’s twitter account and asking Ellen Degeneres to retweet them.

Check out the Facebook page here.

A Larrabee Elementary family unhappy about the potential closure of the school has taken their fight to a new medium: baked goods.

The Blackwood-Edison family submitted a replica of Larrabee Elementary into this year’s Port of Bellingham gingerbread house contest. The twist? On the roof, there’s a Grinch with Bellingham Superintendent Greg Baker’s face on it.

Here’s the entry:

Here’s a closeup:

What do you think about Grinchy entry? Is it a good way to make a statement about the possible Larrabee closure?

The Bellingham School District facilities planning task force will present its ideas for the next 10 years of district projects starting Monday night, Dec. 3.

Possible recommendations include closing Larrabee elementary and creating a new, larger school on Happy Valley’s property, as well as rebuilding Sehome High School.

In case you missed my article about the recommendations , here it is.

Here’s a list of public meetings for community members interested in the possible changes.

Monday, Dec. 3: 6-7 p.m. in Sehome High School’s cafeteria.

Wednesday, Dec. 5: 6-7 p.m. in Whatcom Middle School’s cafeteria.

Thursday, Dec. 6: 6-7 p.m. in Shuksan Middle School’s cafeteria.

Monday, Dec. 10: 6-7 p.m. in Fairhaven Middle School’s cafeteria.

There will also be a survey available online at bellinghamschools.org through Dec. 14.