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Through the years Janie Beasley has been lauded locally for having shown an enduring spirit while working on the Swinomish Reservation, in Skagit County and at La Conner Schools. Now that enduring spirit is being recognized by the Seattle-based Native Action Network. Beasley, a former longtime La Conner School Board member, is among four recipients of the organization’s 2020 Enduring Spirit Award. Becky Bendixen (Unangax), Renee Swan-Waite (Lummi), and Sondra Segundo (Haida/Katzie) have also been selected for the honor. “The Enduring Spi...
The coronavirus pandemic has created a climate of uncertainty, but La Conner High seniors still have firm plans about what they will do beyond the summer. As in years past, the school’s next crop of graduates will pursue dreams taking them to diverse and in some cases distant destinations. All this despite the virus crisis that has left schools closed since March. “Our Class of 2020 remains optimistic in spite of COVID-19,” La Conner Middle and High School Counselor Lori Buher told the Weekly News last week. Buher said 32 students are earni...
La Conner High seniors and their parents have fretted for weeks that there may be no graduation ceremonies this year due to the coronavirus. Now there may be two. La Conner Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner raised that possibility during a briskly paced one-hour video-conferenced school board meeting last week and later in remarks to the Weekly News. She said plans are in the works to broadcast a “virtual” graduation in June and hold a scaled-down in-person commencement later in the sum...
Joseph Wenzel Wohleb, Jr., age 96, a five-year resident of Skagit Valley passed away peacefully on May 7, 2020 in Burlington, WA. He was born on Aug. 6, 1923 in Olympia, WA the youngest son of renowned Olympia architect Joseph Henry Wohleb and Matilda (Gresl) Wohleb. He graduated from Olympia High School in 1941 and went on to attend the University of Washington when he decided to enlist in 1942. He proudly served in the U.S. Army Air Corp. during the Second World War as a waist-gunner on a...
It hasn’t been the best of springs for seniors at La Conner High and other campuses around the country. The coronavirus has wreaked havoc with sports, prom and commencement exercises. But La Conner Schools has come up with a clever way to honor its Class of 2020 graduates. La Conner Middle and High School Assistant Principal Kathy Herrera went on-line last week to introduce the district’s “Celebrate the Seniors” project, scheduled through June 12, which was the date originally chosen for graduation ceremonies here. For “Celebrate the Seniors,...
Names are sacred, some more than others. On both sides of Swinomish Channel, the name John K. Bob has been revered for more than seven decades. Bob, who had been a popular La Conner High student from Swinomish, was a U.S. Army Medic Tech Sergeant when killed in battle in Germany near the end of World War II. The Swinomish Tribal Community baseball complex, developed in 1938 through the Works Progress Administration, was named for Bob during special Memorial Day ceremonies eight years later....
Recently, the La Conner School District administration decided to not renew the contract of one of our beloved teachers. This decision was not only damaging to student morale but also detrimental to student learning. In direct defiance of a petition containing the signatures of 73 high school students and letters of support from other staff members, our principal and superintendent chose to let go of the only math teacher in the high school. A dedicated, hard-working teacher who loved La Conner and gave countless hours of her free time to help...
When La Conner pioneer Isaac Dunlap came west by mule train nearly 160 years ago, he could not have imagined a descendant crossing the country in jetliner cockpits nearly a century later. Nor could he have envisioned his great-grandson, longtime United Airlines pilot Clair “Toby” Dunlap, being joined by presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in the cockpit of a private plane en route from Salt Lake City to a 1960 campaign appearance in southern Oregon. Yet, even in the eyes of his contemporaries, the veteran commercial airline captain liv...
An avid jogger, Todd Torgeson is about to set foot on a new career path. Torgeson, in the third year of his second tour at La Conner Schools, announced in a district-wide email on Monday his resignation as middle and high school principal in order “to explore other options.” La Conner Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner confirmed during a video-conferenced school board study session Monday evening Torgeson’s decision to step down at end of the academic year. She said Torgeson earned a reput...
The coronavirus nixed her senior year track meets, but Morgan Herrera had already shown University of Washington throwing coach Andrew Ninow enough for him to invite the La Conner High standout to the Montlake campus. Herrera will join the UW track program, once the COVID-19 crisis has passed, as a preferred walk-on to compete in the shot put and hammer throw. As a preferred walk-on, Herrera is guaranteed a spot on the Husky roster. “I had my sights set on the UW for a few weeks,” Herrera tol...
It wasn’t so long ago that Hilary Edwards was walking the halls of La Conner High School. Now the halls of Congress are in her future. The 2013 La Conner grad, a first-year law school student at Arizona State University, is one of 12 applicants nationwide to have been selected for a Native American summer congressional internship through the Udall Foundation. The foundation honors the legacies of brothers Stewart Udall and Morris Udall, whose careers fostered the causes of American Indian self-governance and healthcare as well as stewardship o...
At first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary as La Conner High seniors received their graduation caps and gowns Thursday afternoon ahead of this year’s commencement exercises. There was laughter, smiles, and time set aside for photos to last a lifetime. Class members shared future plans. School counselor Lori Buher showed pictures of her newborn grandbaby. Softball coach Loran James offered encouragement to La Conner’s college sports recruits. Cheer sponsor Theresa James con...
The spring sports season at La Conner High went from being virtually cancelled to being resumed virtually. La Conner teams are using technology to remain active and take part in virtual competitions even as schools across Washington state are closed for the rest of the academic year due to the coronavirus outbreak. It was initially thought the La Conner High spring sports calendar wouldn’t flip beyond a just-for-fun mid-March scrimmage between the school’s baseball and softball teams, tho...
Five months after a crossroads election that saw the defeat of two La Conner School Board incumbents, the district panel has elected to continue down the path of change. The board on Monday chose Amanda Bourgeois to fill the Swinomish director district seat vacated by Marlys Baker’s move to Mount Vernon earlier this year. Baker had upset longtime board member Janie Beasley last November. Beasley was seeking a return to the board, but members without comment voted unanimously in favor of Bourgeois in a roll call vote during a 45-minute v...
It is not a war. It is a health care crisis. A nationally mismanaged healthcare crisis. How do we deal with the uncertainty of it all? We are lucky to be in a state that follows the scientific consensus of how to fight this virus, lucky to be in La Conner where there is enough physical elbow room to walk about, lucky to connect with our friends and neighbors for human warmth. The difficult part is accepting those new rules while we seem to be doing all right. Massive loss of freedom. Businesses closed. Keeping distance in the grocery store. Not...
It was a rare bright shining moment last Friday for a La Conner High senior class whose school hallways remain darkened by nationwide campus closures through the rest of the academic year in response to the COVID-19 threat. The stadium lights at Whittaker Field were turned on for 20 minutes at 8:20 p.m. – 20:20 military time – to honor the Class of 2020 whose members won’t walk the stage in traditional commencement exercises in June. The “Be the Light” event, which began in Texas...
Technology is helping bring people and ideas together even as social distancing has become the norm in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The latest example was an hour-long remote panel discussion conducted on the Zoom video conferencing platform in La Conner Thursday afternoon. Town, school and civic leaders logged on to share ways in which they are moving forward in the midst of a pandemic that has ground the economy to a halt. One theme that emerged is those not laid off or furloughed at present are actually working harder outside the...
Terrence Lee “Makah” Bobb passed away March 28, 2020 at Providence Regional Medical Center. Terry was born on September 1, 1948 in Mt. Vernon, WA, to Leonard and Rachel Bobb. Terry was raised on the Swinomish Reservation, attended the La Conner Schools and graduated Class of 1967. After high school Terry moved to Tacoma, WA to attend vocational welding school along with other Swinomish young men. His first employer was Pacific Car and Foundry in Tacoma, WA. He also worked for Skagit County Department of Transportation-Road Construction Div...
Chloe Cunningham has been chosen the Soroptimist International of La Conner chapter’s April’s Soroptimist Honored Student of the Month. This is the essay she submitted to the chapter: My name is Chloe Cunningham. I’m 16 years old and a sophomore at La Conner High school. I’ve been attending La Conner Schools since kindergarten and have lived here my whole life. Many of you might know me as the person that collects socks for the homeless, through my company Just Say Socks. Volunteer work is some...
The idea of homework being a drag is so old school these days. Now it’s helping La Conner students battle cabin fever and occasional boredom as they wait out campus closures through April 24. Teachers here have lined up relevant on-line and other at-home learning options for students while also mindful of the stress families might experience coping with restrictions imposed to stem the spread of COVID-19. “Our teachers at the school,” said parent Sarah Walls, “have been wonderful at keeping...
Marlys Baker had quickly found a home on the La Conner School Board after having unseated longtime incumbent Janie Beasley in their race for the Swinomish director district seat last November. In just four months Baker had earned high praise from La Conner Schools Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner and board colleagues for her immediate impact. But when she and her family moved to Mount Vernon this month, taking residence in their new home forced Baker to turn out the lights on what was a promising start serving on the local school panel. Her...
School’s out, but not for the summer. La Conner students and staff are off campus now through April 24 due to county and state mandates designed to help curb spread of the coronavirus. The campus shutdown represents perhaps the most impactful of La Conner-related virus crisis closures. La Conner School District serves 606 students in grades K-12 and is widely recognized as a cornerstone of the community. La Conner Superintendent of Schools Dr. Whitney Meissner echoed Town Mayor Ramon Hayes’ assessment that the coronavirus poses unp...
Beth Clothier had all the bases covered for La Conner Elementary students when they returned from mid-winter break on Monday. The La Conner Schools librarian set up a special morning performance by a touring cast from Seattle’s Fifth Avenue Theatre, recognized as one of the leading musical theater companies in the country. Their local show was a big hit on several levels. They presented a fast-paced 40-minute rendition of award-winning Seattle author Ken Mochizuki’s “Baseball Saved Us,” based on the true-life story of a Japanes...
The La Conner High girls’ basketball team played like champions before placing second with the school’s best showing ever at the State 2B Hardwood Classic in Spokane last week. Its hard-fought 52-45 title round loss on Saturday to No. 1-ranked Liberty (Spangle) and 6’-0” Division I prospect Maisie Burnham, an Eastern Washington University commit, while disappointing, couldn’t erase the thrill generated by a La Conner hoops team playing in a state championship game for the first time. “I couldn...
After a crossroads election that marked the end of an era, the Swinomish Tribal Senate on Monday selected a tested leader to guide the 11-member panel on the path ahead. Steve “Rudy” Edwards, who has served as Tribal recreation director among other key roles, was the Senate’s choice to succeed Brian Cladoosby as its chairman. Cladoosby, who had chaired the Swinomish Senate for more than two decades and was widely recognized as a prominent national voice in the Native American community, was d...