Education

What’s the solution to Lopez Island school district’s $700K shortfall? Administrators and school board candidates grapple for the solution.

Bill Nye the Science Guy and local educators and students agree: studying science can be life-changing and career-enhancing.

Do local races risk turning into political referendums instead of reasoned debates over school district functions?

The future is already here for users of artificial intelligence technology.

School districts in San Juan County have steered away from a perfect storm of budget cuts, while districts in Whatcom and Skagit counties are feeling the squeeze.

Increasing food insecurity among college students is being answered with a variety of solutions by schools in Skagit and Whatcom counties.

School officials in Whatcom County say policies regarding religious practices for all parties have not and will not change as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District.

Local public school districts are preparing to meet new state mandates for teaching about sexuality and gender.

Public school districts are working with tribes to develop a crucial new curriculum on tribal sovereignty and treaty rights.

Impassioned conversations are occurring nationwide as sometimes large groups of parents show up at once sparsely attended school board meetings — including in Whatcom County — with local issues including COVID-19 mask mandates, critical race theory and sexual health education.

With some employees seeking religious or medical exemption from the state’s COVID-19 mandate, employers and workers both have continued to adapt over the past month to how that plays out in the workplace. Receiving a medical exemption is often relatively straightforward, but religious exemptions are less so, in the application and the approval processes.

Harm reduction programs and collaborations among police, health professionals and society at large pave the pathways to treatment needed by those addicted to drugs, agreed an expert panel at the recent Ralph Munro seminar. Along with looking at why people turn to drugs and how to get them the help they need to overcome addiction, the panel offered ideas as to what’s needed in the way of policy.

The complex and urgent problem of homelessness has been the focus of academics and policy makers as well as people with a firsthand knowledge of the experience, in two separate gatherings recently in Bellingham — and activists say that those most affected should be involved in creating solutions.

At the same time students were returning to university, community college and technical college campuses that had been closed to in-person instruction for a year and a half — and where full vaccination against COVID-19 is now required — the 18- to 24-year-old age group was reporting the highest number of cases.

In the midst of the ongoing pandemic, students are dusting off backpacks, packing lunches — and picking out masks to accompany their back-to-school outfits.