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La Conner teachers and support staff are focused on what’s best for our students, which is why we firmly believe that our school district needs a new superintendent. The La Conner School District staff have lost trust in its leader. We cannot achieve our highest result of excellence as an organization if we do not have a foundation of trust in our leadership. Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner is ineffective and cannot successfully lead our district when 80% of our community’s teachers and 79% of support staff have voted no confidence in her....
Dear Editor: There are more than 110,000 residents of our state living with Alzheimer’s disease and more than 348,000 family members and friends are acting as unpaid caregivers. Fellow Washingtonians who joined the 1,200 attendees at the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement Advocacy Forum in April in Washington, DC, said Congress was listening to their explanation of the burden that Alzheimer’s places on our state and nation. This advocacy is important to me because I lost my husband to Lewy Body Disease which began with Alzheimer’s and I know the hea...
The mission of The Greater Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce is to serve and promote the business interests of greater Whidbey Island. We cannot imagine a more worthy cause than supporting the mission of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, the largest employer within three counties. NAS Whidbey provides over 9,000 military and civilian jobs with a total economic activity generated in this area equally nearly $1.04 billion. Jets truly do equal jobs. Whidbey Island residents “choose” to call Whidbey Island their home. Businesses are outraged that a s...
Dear School Board Members, Your letter to the community does not address the damage that has been done to individuals and the larger culture in La Conner schools. It’s clearly an attempt to assuage the public without any substantial change being made. It appears that you are attempting to protect the superintendent at the expense of the school district, its employees and students. It’s the employees and students that need protecting. It is time for action. There needs to be an investigation of the “leadership” that perpetrated intimid...
Go see “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” half of this summer’s Shakespeare Northwest fare at Rexville-Blackrock amphitheatre, for a cast-full of fine performances, with seemingly no small roles. Because the cast enjoy themselves so much, you will enjoy them, too. Festival mainstay Carolyn Travis, portraying first Hippolyta, ancient Athenian royalty, then the fairy Queen Titania, brings a sultry sexuality of desire when caressing Bottom (a versatile, terrifically vain John Roberson), who was turned into an ass for having ventured into the fairy k...
The world and places beyond were well within reach for La Conner area children on Monday. A series of hands-on Space Quest activities, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, greeted kids who visited La Conner Regional Library that morning. Guest presenter Heidi Larsen turned the place into a virtual space laboratory as part of a program designed to encourage youth to explore activities related to science and technology. Larsen set up stations that allowed kids to...
District 10 residents peppered Rep. Dave Paul (D-Oak Harbor) with questions ranging from mountain goat removal in Olympic National Park to sole source water aquifers to replacing traffic lights with roundabouts, such as Sharpes Corner. Paul responded that some issues were federal (goats) or local (water) thus were not for a state legislator at this town hall held July13. There was a long discussion about the Navy’s Growlers on Whidbey Island among the 50 people attending at the Camano Island L...
Thursday U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-Everett) called for impeaching President Trump. Friday he shared his reasoning on the Everett Herald’s editorial page and his congressional website. Responding to the president’s attacks on four congressional representatives, all women of color, Larsen wrote “It is time to impeach Donald Trump.” Larsen wrote “my decision to impeach hinges on that fundamental value of citizenship and the American dream,” The ten term representative, who has a master’s in public policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs...
Two families deeply rooted in the historical and cultural landscape of Skagit County will be honored at Pioneer Park in La Conner on Aug. 1. The Fisher family of Burlington, whose many contributions to Skagit County agriculture, commerce and the timber and construction industries date to the 1890s, will be honored as Pioneer Family of the Year during the 115th annual Skagit County Pioneer Association Picnic and General Meeting. The DeGoede family, recognized internationally as innovators in the...
A single bald eagle circled overhead as the canoes began to land at Swinomish Monday. A good sign. It was originally estimated that upwards of 5,000 attendees and participants would converge upon the landing site, located at the three cedar hat pavilion. While there is no clear way to calculate a final number, by all accounts the estimation was not far off. Sunday, Tulalip hosted the journey with a reported 65 canoes landing on their beaches. Early Monday morning the canoe families re-entered...
The short statement La Conner School Board Director Susan Deyo read at the end of Monday’s school district board meeting shed light on the next steps on the path the board is walking with Superintendent Whitney Meissner and the school unions opposing her leadership. “The School Board has invited the leadership of both unions to join them for their summer retreat, where we will continue our discussion.” Perhaps more important than Monday’s session was the one hour meeting Friday between Deyo and Director Brad Smith and La Conner Educati...
Rick Larsen loves the U.S. Constitution and he loves his country. He loves the Constitution so much and knows it so well that last Thursday he concluded the President, Donald Trump, has committed high crimes and misdemeanors deserving of impeachment. Our Second District congressional representative has a career-long reputation for being moderate and measured. Our congressional district is as much formed by military bases and farm country as it is by anti-Growler islanders, the university-influenced community in Bellingham or remnants of Magic...
