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The La Conner School Board on Monday approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the school district and La Conner Education Association addressing requirements for returning to school during the COVID-19 pandemic. The agreement focuses on putting in place health screening, masking, social distancing and room cleaning and sanitizing standards to safely bring students and staff back to school. “This gives everybody some structure with which to work through the hybrid model,” interim sup...
It is often said that an ill wind blows no good. That being the case, the storm that blew through here last week was plenty sick. Fierce winds downed trees and power lines, caused major property damage, and left some residents in the La Conner area without electricity for up to four days. Images of the early Wednesday morning storm painted a grim picture. A Ford pickup parked at Jim White’s State Street residence was totaled by a fallen tree. A large Douglas fir blew over near the community k...
La Conner students have done plenty of homework this year, due to the remote learning format adopted to curb spread of COVID-19. School officials have been loaded with homework, too. Their assignment: develop a plan to safely transition students to in-person instruction. A Feb. 1 start was part of the framework unanimously approved by school board members during a 75-minute Zoom meeting Monday night. La Conner Schools’ Director of Special Programs Andy Wheeler outlined the plan, which had been d...
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, high school sports schedules have changed again and again. Still more changes were announced last Wednesday. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) executive board, in response to new pandemic guidelines outlined by Gov. Jay Inslee, has ruled practices for the traditional fall sports season can begin Feb. 1. After several planned launches dating to last summer, the WIAA is now calling the seven-week fall campaign Season 1. “The change in guidelines,” WIAA Executive Director Mick Hof...
These days news is often shared via platforms and messaging networks that are ephemeral in nature. Think Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, as examples. They are literally here today, gone tomorrow formats. But there is still room – on bookshelves and elsewhere – for time-honored means of sharing and preserving news, such as journals, clipbooks, and scrapbooks. The thick collection of news accounts from the pages of the Puget Sound Mail compiled 50 years ago by late La Conner business leader and Rotary Club officer Paul Thompson is a...
They love classic cars, but when Jerry and Jeri Kaufman of Burlington go for a spin it is just as likely to be on the dance floor. The couple’s love of dancing, apparent to all during La Conner Live summer Sunday concerts at Gilkey Square, will be featured on an “Eric’s Heroes” segment airing tonight (Wednesday) as part of the KOMO-4 6 p.m. newscast. Those in Seattle who have previewed the profile say it’s much-watch TV. No surprise here, where the Kaufmans are much admired for their rare zest f...
Over 3,000 Skagit County residents tested positive for the novel coronavirus in 2020, with over one third, 1,021 COVID-19 cases in December. With the 658 reported November infections, over half, 56% of Skagit County’s COVID-19 cases, have been reported in the last two months. Last month 13 people died from COVID-19, one-third of the 40 deaths reported by Skagit Public Health. Fifty-three people were hospitalized in December, 27% of the 194 infection-causing hospitalizations last year, according to Public Health.. “The epidemiological and dea...
Going digital has been the norm in public education since the COVID-19 pandemic forced classes on-line last spring. But within the La Conner Schools art department the learning curve has been less steep. District tech director Ryan Hiller brought a digital art class into the curriculum several years ago and last September veteran art teacher Patty Weber began teaching a technical art class on distance education platforms. Weber, who majored in Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Oregon,...
After two decades behind the counter, there is no denying Robert Salazar has put his stamp on the La Conner Post Office. His quick wit, gregarious spirit and positive outlook – traits that have defined Salazar even as he has dealt with serious health issues – have endeared him with postal patrons since his arrival here in 2000. “So many people stop in every day to say hello to Robert,” La Conner Postmaster Deborah Crump told the Weekly News. “Some of them are people who aren...
Charity Dakota Jordan, a junior at La Conner High School, is someone who has her priorities clearly in order -- first school and then work, she says. Charity, the Soroptimist International of La Conner Honored Student for December, balances being a Running Start student at Skagit Valley College with a job. Students in Running Start graduate the same year as their classmate with a LCHS diploma and a SVC Associate’s Degree earned under guidance of counselors at both institutions. Charity learns h...
Her remarkable devotion to others as she worked and traveled was well known to all in the Swinomish and La Conner communities where Darlene Peters grew up. Now the entire country knows, too. Peters was among recent COVID-19 victims whose memories were honored and many contributions saluted during the national PBS NewsHour broadcast Christmas night. “Out of all the COVID-19 deaths each week,” said Peters’ lifelong friend and former Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Senate Chairman Brian Cladoosby, “five are honored and their stories shared....
Though sidelined all fall by the COVID-19 pandemic, La Conner High’s two-time defending state title volleyball team has still been able to show its championship mettle. Team members have served up two major public service projects in response to the virus crisis, designing and creating custom La Conner Braves face coverings benefitting the Skagit Valley Hospital Foundation and delivering holiday goodie bags to La Conner Retirement Inn. The team has also shared a Zoom Christmas card with the L...
The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting people mentally, as well as physically, across the world, and in our local communities. As a 16-year-old high school student-athlete, I feel the isolation of not being with my peers and the anxiety that comes with not being able to participate in activities that I love. While I understand, rationally, the reason why I am not able to attend school or participate in sports, I wonder about the social/emotional health of our nation’s youth. According to the New York Times, “The proportion of children’s emerg...
Kirby Walter Johnson, 79, beloved husband, father, and grandfather, and lifelong Skagit Valley resident, died at home in La Conner on Thursday, December 10, 2020. Kirby was born on March 13, 1941 to Curtis and Dorothy Johnson. He graduated from La Conner High School in 1959, then earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University in 1963. Kirby then served in the U.S. Air Force from 1963 to 1967. In 1965, he married Pam Dalan at the Methodist church in La Conner. They first met in 1949 at Karen Irvin’s ballroom dancing class in...
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the La Conner Schools campus has been a remote location this semester. That changed for a couple hours Wednesday afternoon. The La Conner Elementary School parking area morphed into a festive convergence zone with teachers donning favorite Christmas garb – and, of course, masks – while lined up to greet students and families as they drove through the school’s circular drop-off zone. Kids hung out of car windows, waving joyfully, and sharing gleeful s...
Avery Sloniker is the Soroptimist Honored Student for November. Avery is a senior at La Conner High School. This busy young woman is also a full time Running Start student at Skagit Valley College and enjoys sports and doing volunteer work. Avery is studying history, psychology and, her favorite class, political science at SVC. To stay connected with her friends at the high school Avery participates in the school band where she plays the trombone. She also is enrolled in Advisory at the high...
The Gilkey Square tree lighting. Fall and spring concerts. Regional music educator festivals. Christmas wreath sales. Pep band. Maybe Disneyland. COVID-19 wiped the 2020-21 school music calendar clean, leaving La Conner Director of Bands and Choirs McKenzie Clark and his students to make music on-line. That is a challenge for an essentially face-to-face endeavor. When meeting in person, music classes begin with call-and-response warm-up exercises. Clark sings or plays a line; students repeat...
The tipoff to the La Conner High basketball season has been delayed once again. The reason is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has rebounded this fall: a tenacious, relentless full-court press. Because of statewide spikes in coronavirus cases, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) executive board has delayed the start of Season 2, including boys’ and girls’ basketball and wrestling, from Dec. 28 to Feb. 1. The delay is the latest in a series of high school sports’ schedule changes prompted by the pandemic. In response to th...
During a 90-minute Zoom meeting Monday, La Conner School Board Members heard results of public focus group sessions on the status of the district, then began setting a salary range for the next superintendent. Consultants Mark Venn and Dr. Wayne Robertson said about 100 focus group participants identified district strengths and challenges and the attributes the public values in a superintendent. “There was a lot of really good feedback,” Venn said of the teleconferenced meetings. “We had a wide range of groups, from alumni to the Chamber of Co...
Burke Russell Hagen (49) of Seattle, Washington passed away at his home on the morning of November 9, 2020, due to natural causes. Burke and his twin brother Jerrod arrived in Palmer, earlier than expected, on a cold Alaskan night 49 years ago to parents Patricia (Engel) Hagen and Erling Hagen. Their older sister Deena, became a second mother to these boys and another, Scott, born 13 months later. After his family moved to Bayview, Washington in 1977, Burke attended West View Elementary and...
La Conner wrestler Delaney Cobbs rarely faces a foe she cannot beat. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of those, however. New statewide restrictions put in place to curb spread of the coronavirus have forced Cobbs to forego participation in a major mat tournament in Arizona this weekend. Under mandates imposed Nov. 16, after Cobbs was selected to join a Tacoma-based national travel team for the Arizona trip, she and others traveling from Washington would have had to quarantine for two weeks upon their return. That would not have been feasible for...
La Conner School Board members were in a thankful mood Monday and hope to be so again in February when voters consider a four-year replacement educational programs and operations levy totaling $4,036,344. Acting on recommendations from a levy election committee co-chaired by La Conner alums Robert Hancock and Jerry Carr, the board, during a 90-minute Zoom meeting, unanimously approved a resolution putting the ballot measure before school district voters on Feb. 9, 2021. If approved, the levy rate on taxable property would be $1.45 per $1,000...
A La Conner High student has no trouble grappling with success. Adjusting to new COVID-19 pandemic restrictions might be less certain, however. Delaney Cobbs, a reigning girls’ 2A regional wrestling champion has been selected to square off against top mat talent from around the country at a major tournament in Arizona next month. Cobbs, a junior, is scheduled to compete with the Tacoma-based Ford Dynasty Wrestling Club’s national travel team in Bullhead City, Az., about 100 miles south of Las...
Vaughn passed away on October 29, 2020 in Wenatchee, WA, at the age of 68. He was born March 13, 1952 in Spokane, WA to William “Bill” and Betty Jolley. Vaughn grew up in Colville, WA and graduated from Colville High School in 1970. Following graduation he attended Eastern Washington University earning his degree. Vaughn’s passion was real estate, working on many land development projects throughout his career. Vaughn resided in La Conner, WA for many years. After retirement, he perma...
Delaney Cobbs, a junior at La Conner High School, is the Soroptimist International of La Conner honored student for October. Delaney participates in soccer and wrestling, and also joined “Varsity in Volunteering” last year. Students earn a letter (V) for working a prescribed number of hours – a new and meaningful world of involvement in which students are recognized with a varsity letter. She has already earned her letter from her wide ranging involvements in the community and school. Wre...