Serving on the Oak Harbor School Board wasn’t Peter Hunt’s plan but when no one else ran four years ago, Hunt stepped up to fulfill his duty to his community. He’s running again this year for position 1, unopposed.
“I’m a passionate advocate for the school system,” Hunt said, adding that he feels an obligation to his community to serve.
Four days a week, 74-year-old Cindy Strickland climbs from her wheelchair onto a motorized chair that lowers her into the John Vanderzicht Memorial Pool. Legally blind, diabetic and with both legs amputated to the knees, the water is the only place Strickland can move freely.
“It’s my exercise. I don’t walk. I don’t do much of anything but swim,” Strickland said.
Swimming helps her work on coordination, breathing and “just everything,” Strickland said.
As Christine Abbott and John Worthington run for position 2 on the Oak Harbor School Board, they agree they will bring unique perspectives to the board as a parent and a teacher.
Abbott said that as a full-time mother and military spouse, she will bring new thoughts to the school board.
“I have a larger investment in making this a good district,” Abbott said. Her three children attend Oak Harbor schools in kindergarten, 2nd and 4th grade and she plans that they will all graduate from Oak Harbor High School.
Don Sherman has served on the Coupeville School Board for 10 years, including as president of the board, and he’s prepared to continue. He’s running unopposed for position 1.
“I’m a believer in community service. Education is a really high priority for us and we have a great school system here,” Sherman said.
An extra dose of school spirit will light up Coupeville High School this week during a homecoming week packed with sports, talent and dancing.
The week will open with Top Gun Volleyball on Monday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. in the high school gym. Classes will compete against each other for the ultimate champion title.
Maintaining school textbooks and technology is similar to keeping up a home or a car. Putting a new roof on a house now will save money in the future and it’s the same for curriculum, said Oak Harbor School District Human Resources Director Kurt Schonberg.
Due to federal and state budget reductions, the district has been unable to replace kindergarten through 12th grade science textbooks since 2002 and kindergarten through 12th grade social studies textbooks since 2003.
Tom Gilpin thought he was in excellent health when he attended dog agility trials at Windjammer Park on Sept. 16. He finished running around the courses with his dog, feeling fine.
“Next thing I knew, I woke up in the back of an ambulance,” Gilpin, of Snohomish, said.
Gilpin had a heart attack and collapsed. If three off-duty nurses hadn’t immediately started CPR, Gilpin most likely would have died.
Bev McQuary gets to play with fire every day. And when she turns on her torch, her creativity comes to life in vibrant whorls of color, unique bubbles and elegant feathering in her lampworked glass beads.
McQuary and 60 other Whidbey Island artists will open more than 30 studios to the public Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 8 and 9, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the 15th annual Whidbey Open Studio Tour, a free event presented by the Whidbey Island Arts Council.
Strawberry Shortcake is coming to Coupeville — in the form of a scarecrow created by the students and parents of Central Whidbey Cooperative Preschool.
With her red yarn hair, dress sewn by a student’s grandma and striped stockings stuffed by excited preschoolers, Strawberry Shortcake will join other scarecrows created by local businesses and individuals on Main and Front streets in Coupeville. The annual Scarecrow Corridor will be in place by Friday, Oct. 7.
Instead of the aged “uphill both ways” complaint, this generation can brag about walking to school to reduce fumes and improve their health.
Students will celebrate walking and biking on International Walk to School Day Wednesday, Oct. 5.
Getting daily exercise on the way to school helps combat the childhood obesity epidemic, said Maribeth Crandell, the city of Oak Harbor’s environmental educator.
Enrollment for Oak Harbor schools is as the district expected, at slightly below last year’s by approximately 12 students.
“That’s good news,” Assistant Superintendent Lance Gibbon said.
Overall, enrollment is lower than expected at the elementary level with 59 fewer students and above at the high school level with 52 more students, Gibbon said. Middle schools saw 11 more students than expected.
If the gray pigeons strutting down city streets realized their wide variety of cousins, maybe they’d understand why people brush them aside. How can they compare to pigeons with feathers that curl up at the ends, or pigeons with white heads and black bodies, reminiscent of bald eagles?
While Oak Harbor schools showed strong improvement in two-thirds of the categories of state testing, the only Oak Harbor school to meet state standards this year was Hillcrest Elementary School.
The standard, Adequate Yearly Progress, is raised each year until 100 percent of students will be required to pass the tests in 2014, as stated in the No Child Left Behind law.
Not meeting AYP isn’t unusual; 74 percent of Washington school districts didn’t make it, said Assistant Superintendent Lance Gibbon. Out of 147 similarly-sized districts to Oak Harbor, one made AYP: Mercer Island.
