Blaine
Blaine School District coverage
Six Whatcom County high school graduates have received the 2012-13 Leaders and Achievers Scholarship Program award, Comcast Foundation has announced.
They were among 90 students named in Western Washington and Spokane.
Comcast asked schools to nominate students who showed leadership abilities in school activities and strong commitment to community service.
The Whatcom County students and their schools are:
- Emily P. Steelquist, Blaine High School
- Patricia M. Castrejon, Ferndale High School
- Fraser J. Shindruk, Lynden High School
- Kaitlyn M. Michaelson, Meridian High School
- Brett T. Copher, Nooksack Valley High
- Janice E. Liang, Sehome High School
The Comcast Leaders and Achievers Scholarship Program gives $1,000 scholarships to students.
Lynden Christian, Lummi and Windward kicked off graduations in Whatcom County with their ceremonies on Thursday, June 7.
Lynden and Nooksack Valley high schools are up next, with their graduations beginning at 7 p.m. Friday, June 8.
Below is a round-up of high school and college graduation ceremonies this month. Ceremonies are open to the public, unless otherwise noted.
FRIDAY, JUNE 8
Lynden High School: 7 p.m. in the school gym.
Nooksack Valley High School: 7 p.m. at Sid Lambert Field or Kay LeMaster Gym, depending on the weather.
SATURDAY, JUNE 9
Ferndale High School: 11 a.m. at Civic Field.
Western Washington University:
- 9 a.m. College of Business and Economics, College of Fine and Performing Arts, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, and Huxley College of the Environment.
- 12:30 p.m. College of Humanities and Social Sciences (Humanities Division) and Woodring College of Education.
- 4 p.m. College of Humanities and Social Sciences (Social Sciences Division) and the College of Sciences and Technology.
All three ceremonies are in Carver Gymnasium. Tickets are required for seating in the gym, but there will be overflow seating in the Science, Mathematics and Technology Education building with the ceremonies broadcast on a screen. The ceremonies also will be broadcast live on Comcast channel 26 and streamed live on www.ustream.tv/channel/wwu-live-events1.
MONDAY, JUNE 11
Blaine High School: 6 p.m. in the school gym.
Community Transitions (Bellingham School District): 7 p.m. Bellingham Cruise Terminal, Dome Room.
TUESDAY, JUNE 12
Mount Baker High School: 6:30 p.m. at the school’s Bob Tisdale Field.
THURSDAY, JUNE 14
Meridian High School: 7 p.m. in the school gym.
Explorations Academy: 7 p.m. at Squalicum Boathouse. Space is limited so people need to contact Explorations before June 13 if they wish to attend.
FRIDAY, JUNE 15
Bellingham High School: 7 p.m. in the school gym. Tickets required.
Northwest Indian College: 4 p.m. in Wex’liem community building.
Whatcom Community College: 6:30 p.m. in the Pavilion. Tickets are required to sit in the pavilion; however there will be overflow seating in Heiner Theatre with the ceremony broadcast on a screen.
SATURDAY, JUNE 16
Squalicum High School: 11 a.m. at the school. Tickets required.
MONDAY, JUNE 18
Sehome High School: 6 p.m. in Carver Gym at WWU.
TUESDAY, JUNE 19
Options High School: 7 p.m. in the theater at Bellingham High School.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20
Bellingham Technical College: 7 p.m. at Mount Baker Theatre. Tickets required.
An autism specialist will give a talk in the library at Blaine Middle School, 975 H St., on Tuesday, April 17.
Nancy Rosenberg’s talk is titled “Preventing Challenging Behaviors in Your Child with Autism: Strategies for Families.”
The free event, which is open to the public, is 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Childcare will be provided in room 14 of the middle school. Pizza will be served 5:30 to 6 p.m.
To learn more and to register, contact Randy Elsbree, director of federal and special programs for the Blaine School District, at 360-332-0722 and relsbree@blainesd.org.
Details are online at www.blaine.wednet.edu.
Even though the Ferndale School District had the only two contested school board seats in the county, some people have been asking me about the results from the rest of the districts.
Here is a break-down of candidates and vote totals for all seven Whatcom County school boards.
As of Wednesday evening, Nov. 9, about 45,800 ballots have been counted, out of about 117,000 registered voters. I don’t have a break-down of number of ballots per school district.
Bellingham School Board (all races uncontested)
Camille Diaz Hackler – 14,191
Ken Gass – 14,776
Kelly Bashaw – 14,529
Blaine School Board (all uncontested)
Campbell McClusky – 2,767
Todd Berge – 2,776
Charles Gibson – 2,747
Ferndale School Board
Kevin Erickson – 4,697
Stuart McKay – 3,377 – vs. Jeffrey Marks – 1,844
Hugh Foulke – 3,109 – vs. Tim Ballew – 2,028
Lynden School Board (all races uncontested)
Dominic Shiu – 2,935
Gary Vis – 3,271
Kevin Burke – 3,016
Stephan Jilk – 3,080
Meridian School Board (all races uncontested)
Craig Wasilewski – 1,623
Marty Gray – 1,557
John Bosche – 1,532
Mount Baker School Board (all races uncontested)
Gary Chadwick – 2,085
Ellen Dodson – 2,099
Trish Hart – 2,071
Russ Pfeiffer-Hoyt – 2,111
Nooksack Valley School Board (all races uncontested)
Cheryl Thornton – 1,331
Chris Haugen – 1,310
Mark Olson – 1,300
Note: The bond, if the board approves it, will be on the February ballot, not the April ballot. The month has been corrected below.
The Blaine School District will be asking voters to approve a replacement maintenance and operations levy in February.
The school board approved putting the levy request on the ballot at a meeting Monday night, Oct. 24.
The four-year levy would bring-in between $6.1 and $6.5 million each year from 2013-2016. When voters approve a levy, they are approving the maximum amount of money a district can collect in property taxes from residents – the tax rate may fluctuate, but the bottom-line amount the district receives can’t be above the approved amounts.
The estimated tax rates go from $1.62 per $1,000 of a home’s assessed value in 2013, to $1.68 per $1,000 in 2016. The projected levy tax rate for 2012 is $1.45.
The main reason for the increase in the tax rate is due to the state allowing school districts to collect more money from tax payers, in an effort to offset some of the state-level budget cuts. The current maintenance and operations levy accounts for about 25 percent of the district’s budget, according to Superintendent Ron Spanjer.
The district is also considering putting a $3 million bond measure to voters in April February. While the school board has not officially approved putting the measure on the ballot yet, members did give the district the go-ahead on working toward that goal.
The proposed projects the bond would pay for include: remodeling the high school science building, relocating the middle school and high school Life Skills programs to their respective campuses, retrofit lighting at the high school, upgrade heating at the middle and elementary schools and expand the security camera system at the elementary and primary school campuses.
This is the third time the district has attempted to get a bond passed to make repairs at the high school. The last attempt in April was a $32 million bond request, and 59 percent of the voters supported it. Bonds need at least 60 percent of the votes in order to pass.
The school board will consider the bond measure at the November meeting.
Three Whatcom County schools – Wade King Elementary, Blaine Middle and Nooksack Valley High schools – are School of Distinction Award winners this year.
The award recognizes schools that have made large improvements in student achievement. Across the state, 99 schools received the honor this year, the fifth time the awards have been given out.
Awardees are chosen based on looking at data from the state standardized tests over the last five years. The schools with the largest gains in all subjects are honored.
The awards are given by the Center for Educational Effectiveness, the Association of Educational Service Districts, the Association of Washington School Principals, Phi Delta Kappa-Washington Chapter, Washington Association of School Administrators, Washington State ASCD and Washington State School Directors’ Association.
Update: The Bellingham School Board will meet in executive session at 7 p.m. on Thursday to discuss “property acquisition,” something that is allowed o occur behind closed doors under state law. The regular meeting will start around 7:30 p.m.
School is back in session, which means school board meetings are about. Several districts and schools have meetings this week:
Bellingham School Board – Regular meeting; Thursday, Sept. 22, 7 p.m. at the district office. The board will go into executive session at the start of the meeting to discuss “property acquisition.” The regular meeting will start about 7:30 p.m. Agenda
Ferndale School Board – Study session to discuss facilities, board goals and the 2012 levy; Wednesday, Sept. 21, 3:30 at the district office. Agenda.
Lynden School Board – Regular meeting; Thursday, Sept. 22, 6 pm at Lynden School District office/Lynden High School. Agenda
Mount Baker School Board – Regular meeting and worksession; Thursday, Sept. 22, 4 to 8 p.m. at the district office (please note the time change).
Whatcom Community College Board of Trustees – Regular meeting; Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2 p.m. in Laidlaw Center Boardroom, #143. Agenda is available for download here.
And next week, there are even more!
Blaine School Board – Worksession and regular meeting; Monday, Sept. 26, 5-6:30 p.m. (worksession) and 7 p.m. (regular meeting).
Meridian School Board – Regular meeting; Wednesday, Sept. 28, 7 p.m. in Meridian Middle School’s library.
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