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Like loons calling across the water, like Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," the Swinomish Canoe Family hushed the crowd of 150 people as they sang and drummed a blessing prayer, the chorus meandering its way from the majestic totem outside into the La Conner Swinomish Library Saturday afternoon. The building felt just a little more hallowed. And crowded. Whew! There were a lot of people there. The pole, made from a 400-year old western red cedar, carved by Kevin Paul and assisted by his son-in-law...
Candidates responded to these issues: 1. School District's greatest strengths. 2. Curriculum and policies valuing student voices. 3. Schools' unique features to maintain. 4. How to best support Superintendent Will Nelson. 5. High school's future if enrollment remains low. 6. Your experiences and qualities. John Agen 1. Community: La Conner has a long history of great support for our students and schools. Diversity: We have a wonderful blend that includes significant numbers of Native, Hispanic a...
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...
Dave is gone. For someone who was consistently late to every appointment, he left this world way too early. David Francis Ehman was born to Shirley Ehman and Marvel Brodt Ehman on October 21, 1950, in Dayton, Ohio. He joined sisters Kathy and Marilyn. Later, Julie would join them. He attended public schools in Dayton, Ohio through high school, and went on to attend and graduate from Valparaiso University in Indiana with a Political Science degree. Beginning as a teacher's aide, David was...
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...
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...
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...
Darrell McCormick died peacefully with his wife by his side on Sept. 20, 2023. Darrell was born and raised in La Conner. He spent much of his youth hunting with his dad, Bruce, and brothers Larry and Gail. Darrell loved working long hours on his grandparent's farm which instilled a, "Let's make hay while the sun is up!" attitude. In school, Darrell was a stand-out athlete who helped draw town locals out to cheer on the Braves. After graduating from La Conner High, he married his high school...
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...
The La Conner High School boys’ soccer team was on point against Crosspoint Saturday. The Braves (1-3) earned their first victory of 2023 with a convincing 5-0 home shutout of non-conference foe Crosspoint Academy, a traditional soccer power from Bremerton and a SeaTac 2B entry. Lane Tenborg paced the winners by scoring twice and assisting on La Conner’s other three goals. Braves’ head coach Galen McKnight described Tenborg’s play as “brilliant.” McKnight also praised Corran Eisen, who broke a scoreless tie with the lone first half goal of the...
The new-look La Conner High School volleyball team, sporting a revamped lineup following heavy graduation losses from last year’s state 2B championship roster, has not lost sight of the immediate task at hand. Which is to collect as many NW2B/1B match triumphs as possible. So far, the Lady Braves (2-4 overall) have checked that box. The team, which dropped early non-league contests with 1A Meridian and Lynden Christian, 1B Neah Bay and 4A Glacier Peak, has won the match that counts most – a straight-sets sweep of conference rival Concrete Sep...
The La Conner High School girls’ soccer team could not find the net at Auburn Adventist Thursday afternoon.On that score, the Lady Braves are in good company. Auburn Adventist has won four matches this fall by shutout. That is why they sit atop SeaTac 2B League standings, The Lady Falcons added NW2B/1B member La Conner to the list, recording a 3-0 non-league triumph, despite several outstanding individual performances cited by first-year coach Maddie Huscher. Huscher praised striker Izzy Villard, right wing Kailey Carlson, right back Aisley Z...
The drive to reinstate student public service hours as a La Conner High School graduation requirement intersected Monday with a concrete example of the level of community support enjoyed by the school district. School Board members at their 75-minute Sept. 25 hybrid meeting expressed appreciation for a donation of 11 ukuleles by the La Conner Arts Commission to the elementary music program. Board President Susie Deyo cited the commitment demonstrated by the group as a prime reason of the great value for everyone when students engage in the...
Soroptimists are optimists – and with good reason, especially in La Conner. Members of the local chapter daily express appreciation for the widespread community support received for their multiple service projects. Their global volunteer organization provides women and girls access to education and training needed for economic empowerment. “It’s totally amazing what we get in donations,” Diane Goetz, co-president with Margaret Hillard of La Conner Soroptimists, said of the merchandise stocked at the chapter’s Vintage La Conner thrift store. Go...
The sands of time have shifted from the hourglass to poly bags that will soon be strategically placed along the La Conner waterfront ahead of king tide season. Facing an Oct. 1 deadline to install sandbags and ecology blocks in areas prone to flooding, the La Conner Town Council last week approved purchases of equipment and barriers designed to thwart the high-water damage that plagued the town last December. The council, acting upon recommendations of the Emergency Management Commission, gave Public Works Director Brian Lease the go-ahead at...
The new-look La Conner High School volleyball team, beset with heavy graduation losses, produced quite familiar results at NW2B foe Concrete Thursday night. The defending state 2B title winners forged a straight-sets triumph in their league debut, after successive setbacks to tough 1A net programs Lynden Christian and Meridian and a 3-1 loss to a talented 1B Neah Bay club Wednesday at Landy James Gym. Neah Bay swept NW2B Coupeville, a team La Conner is expected to vie for conference top honors, during its long two-match road swing from Cape...
La Conner continues to dodge the bullets that so much of small-town America is getting hit by: loss of employers, employees and families moving away, empty storefronts and boarded up homes, loss of hospitals and school closures. No, instead the problems here are employers struggling to fill open positions, employees stuck with commuting long distances and the local government needing robust affordable housing planning, policies and funding. The school district reacts to a smaller student population, but the high cost of housing is a tragedy it...
Thank you for printing the Tom Robbins graduation address article. I graduated at about the same time and spent my formative years in the Skagit Valley. Although I experienced a traditional high school commencement speech, not a word of which I can remember, I clearly recall soaking up Tom’s books. I moved away from the Valley for graduate school and a satisfying career studying insects that eat trees. I’ve never tired of asking questions of the natural world, a fascination I attribute to having spent so much of my youth pondering the lim...
All wasn’t lost when the new-look La Conner High School girls’ soccer team dropped two tough non-league tests to open the 2023 campaign. First-year coach Maddie Huscher was encouraged by her club’s effort in an 8-1 setback to North Mason and 7-0 shutout defeat at Northwest House of Seattle last week. “It was tough competition playing a team not in our division,” Huscher told the Weekly News after the road trip to Northwest, “but it was a great learning experience. We played on a turf field, something we aren’t used to.” Huscher said the team’s...
C.J. Edwards reeled off a 53-yard touchdown run, Ivory Damien delivered a 45-yard scoring strike to Tommy Murdock and the La Conner High School defense recovered five fumbles, but the Braves still fell 28-12 to Evergreen of Seattle in their grid opener at Whittaker Field Friday night. The difference, even more than the Wolverines' 16-point margin of victory, was in roster depth. Evergreen is a 2A King County program that rolls out 57 players. The 2B Braves, by contrast, suit up 20, two of them f...
Among its many devotees, the annual Pioneer Picnic in La Conner is always a winner. Especially by the staff and volunteers at the Skagit County Historical Museum. This year was no exception as proceeds from the annual picnic in August allowed the La Conner Civic Garden Club and Skagit County Pioneer Association to contribute a total of $4,000 to the museum last week. The joint contribution by the organizations to the museum was approved during the association’s board meeting at the Skagit City School Building on Fir Island Friday afternoon. T...
Merlin James "Jim" Hanson, 87, died peacefully on Aug. 23, 2023 from complications of congestive heart failure surrounded by his wife Margaret (Midge) and daughters Brit, Laura and Kari. Jim was born in McGregor, N.D., the sixth-born child of Minnie and Erwin Hanson. His life journey included the roles of Lincoln Lynx, UW Husky; U.S. Army officer; and insurance man. Jim was a member of the 101 Club, found golf late in life at the Skagit Golf Club; an adventurous salmon fisherman and boater; and...
The vibe coming out of the Pac-12 Conference this summer couldn't have been more grim. But a La Conner High School alum is providing a rare bit of good news, especially in her hometown, ahead of what will be the final year of the Conference of Champions as it is known. Ashley Watkins, a 2017 La Conner grad, has been elevated to director of football operations at Washington State University, the youngest sports administrator to serve in that capacity within the Pac-12. Her promotion was...