News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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High school student athletes may get to shake off some rust and get back into the rhythm of their sports soon. On Monday, the Grand Coulee Dam School District board approved a plan presented by Athletic Director Tim Rasmussen, who will ask Okanogan County Public Health to approve it. The plan, which won’t include games against other schools, describes a practice schedule beginning with spring sports practices from Oct. 19 through Nov. 7, then fall sports practices from Nov. 9 through Nov. 28, and finally winter sports practices from Nov. 30 t...
Some good news for distance learners came this week related to devices and internet service for students. Superintendent Paul Turner told The Star Monday that an additional 275 Chromebooks should be in this week, enough for every student in the Grand Coulee Dam School District to have a device to use. Turner also said that the school qualified for funding from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to pay for internet for up to 100 families through June of 2021. That is about how many families need internet in the district, Turner...
A levy seeking to bring in roughly $600,000 over two years to the Grand Coulee Dam School District will be on the ballot for the Nov. 3 election. Superintendent Paul Turner said the new levy is important to the district because of an “uncertainty of funding” coming from the state this coming spring. The state is required to fund basic education, but the definition of basic education doesn’t include transportation, Turner explained, saying that is one area that could get hit. Turner said that the COVID-19 pandemic created budget problems for t...
In just a few weeks, area voters will not only decide who to back in a presidential and gubernatorial election but will vote on the approval of a levy for the Grand Coulee Dam School District. This levy would be one additional dollar per thousand dollars of assessed property value. It requires a simple majority to pass if there is participation from a minimum of forty percent of voters who turned out in the last general election. Please vote! If you’ve had the chance to get to know some LR students, you know how fun they are to talk to and h...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District will continue offering a free meals program this school year through Dec. 18, on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays only. Sack breakfast and lunches can be picked up from 10:30- to noon at the Lake Roosevelt Elementary School for any child up to age 18....
The Grand Coulee branch of North Cascades Bank (NCB) is collecting new or gently used coats for local children in need. Cash donations will be used to purchase new coats. All items will be distributed to schools in the Grand Coulee Dam School District. Donations will be accepted at NCB through the end of October. Please help keep our local kids warm this winter! If you have any questions about the coat drive, please call 633-1700. NCB, Member FDIC... Full story
School district directors did not rush into a decision Monday to reopen Lake Roosevelt Schools sooner than the start of the second quarter, but students who need to will be able to start using the computer labs this week. The Grand Coulee Dam School District board of directors held a Zoom meeting Sept. 28 that included a discussion on reopening school to a hybrid model of distance learning and classroom learning, in which some students would be in the school on Mondays and Tuesdays and others...
Students at Lake Roosevelt will soon be able to use the computer labs at the school. A Sept. 24 update from Superintendent Paul Turner says that beginning Oct. 1, because Okanogan county is at about 18 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 populations, meeting requirements from county health directors to open the school further, that students will be able to take advantage of the schools computer labs. The four labs in the high school and one lab in the elementary school will be able to accommodate 50 students total at a time, Turner's update says. A... Full story
Operating a public school during the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t easy, but optimism remains with the COVID incidence rate in Okanogan County being low right now. As if to underscore the challenges, regional internet service for many went down Tuesday night, right before the Grand Coulee Dam School Board was to meet, via Zoom, to consider whether to partially open in-school teaching. “Everybody’s totally stressed out, it’s been totally nuts,” Superintendent Paul Turner had said Monday over the phone about the new, currently online-only school ye...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors will be holding a special meeting via Zoom today, Sept. 22, at 5:30 p.m. "to review up to date information and discuss potential school re-opening options," a notice from the district reads. The link to join the meeting is https://gcdsd.zoom.us/j/677070515... Full story
The Colville Tribes is working to address the problem of students in the Nespelem area not having access to the internet while schools are switching to a distance-learning model of education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Nespelem School District board of directors Aug. 26 approved allowing the Tribes to build an internet tower on school grounds, something that Superintendent/Principal Effie Dean said would bring internet access to the town of Nespelem. And beyond the town people could create “hotspots” using their phones, altogether bri... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors will be holding a Special Zoom Meeting on Friday, August 28 at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will address one item “Correction: approval of August Accounts Payable...
Documents addressing options for Grand Coulee Dam School District students have been posted on the district website. An Aug. 19 letter from Superintendent Paul Turner to the community, parents, and students touches upon aspects of reopening school, including: a strict protocol to enter the school, understanding educational options, the first day of school being Sept. 8, with student academic participation beginning Sept. 11, and conferences being held Sept. 8-10 will make sure parents and students are familiar with the online platform the...
John Terry "Jack" McKissen was born in Grand Junction, Colorado, the fourth child of Harry Escol McKissen and Mary Ethel Handley. Doctors advised that Ethel cease child-bearing, as she was becoming increasingly thin, so Jack was her last child. The entire family was musical, playing and singing together frequently. News clippings show that he went to the Colorado-Wyoming spelling bee both years of junior high school. High school records show steady participation in FFA and Band, an IQ score of 1... Full story
Documents addressing options for Grand Coulee Dam School District students have been posted on the district website. An Aug. 19 letter from Superintendent Paul Turner to the community, parents, and students touches upon aspects of reopening school, including: • a strict protocol to enter the school, • understanding educational options, • the first day of school being Sept. 8, with student academic participation beginning Sept. 11, and • conferences being held Sept. 8-10 will make sure parents and students are familiar with the online platfor... Full story
All students in the Grand Coulee Dam School District will start the year with online-only classes, according to a plan laid out Monday night to school board directors by Superintendent Paul Turner. In a Zoom board meeting with the directors and 26 other people Monday evening, Turner said the Okanogan County Health officer wouldn’t grant a waiver for the district to allow it to open with kids in physical classrooms. Okanogan County Public Health Officer John McCarthy isn’t alone in that stance. He and his counterparts in Grant, Chelan, Dou...
I once moved twice on the same day. We have moved 14 times, but only once in the past 56 years. Our first move was to Palouse from southern Idaho. We were so recently married that it only took a couple of boxes, and those fit neatly in the trunk of our 1946 Ford. We spent the winter there. Trained as a lumber grader, I answered an ad in the Spokesman Review for a position at Lincoln Lumber Company. We interviewed, got the position and found an apartment in Wilbur. The apartment belonged to the school district there, and we got it with the...
The Grand Coulee Dam School District is asking for more money as they enter the uncharted territory of beginning a new school year during the COVID-19 pandemic. The district board of directors Monday night approved a budget for the 2020-21 school year, as well as a resolution authorizing a new enrichment levy that will ask property owners for an additional dollar per $1,000 of assessed value on their property. Voters will decide in the November general election whether the district gets that extra dollar. The history of local school levies in...
The superintendent of the Grand Coulee Dam School District will answer your questions related to reopening school for the 2020-21 school year during the COVID-19 pandemic in weekly question-and-answer sessions held online. Superintendent Paul Turner sent an email on July 22 to parents, staff, and community members detailing the meetings. “In light of all the COVID-19 uncertainty about school reopening, I would like to schedule weekly Q&A sessions online,” Turner said. “At this point the district has developed some re-opening strategies with mor...
The upcoming school year will be a hybrid mix of online and in-school learning for most students, if plans in development at Grand Coulee Dam School District come to fruition amidst current uncertainties about timing and COVID-19. That was the topic of discussion at a Zoom school board meeting Monday night, which was well attended by staff, parents, and more. The superintendent and board of directors met in the library at Lake Roosevelt Junior/Senior High, passing a health screening before entering the building, wearing masks, keeping a... Full story
The Grand Coulee Dam School District has sent a survey to parents and students asking for their input on distance learning, which has taken the place of traditional, in-school learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are two separate surveys, one for parents and one for students, available on the homepage of the district website at https://www.gcdsd.org/. The surveys asks parents and students alike about their experiences so far with distance learning, what works and what doesn’t, and how engaged they were with the process. The survey a... Full story
No matter what you think of the plans for the upcoming school year, the good news is that along the way to hacking out a path through an impossible situation, the Grand Coulee Dam School District directors Monday displayed what could well be the future model of civic engagement. The board, while holding its latest Zoom online meeting accessible by the public, did exactly what they are supposed to do in full view of all. Usually, when citizens call up a board member about an issue, the elected representative of the people takes the information a... Full story
GCD School District #301J Budget Hearing Notice Notice is hereby given that Grand Coulee Dam School District #301J, will hold a public budget hearing to review the 2020-2021 budget in the Lake Roosevelt Jr. /Sr. High School Library at 5:30 p.m. on the 27th day of July, 2020. Regular board meeting will follow the hearing. B. Paul Turner, Superintendent Grand Coulee Dam School District No. 301J (Publish July 15 & 22, 2020) City of Electric City CALL FOR BIDS FOR 2018 JEEP RENEGADE The City of Electric City will sell by sealed bid the following:... Full story
You can listen in on the Grand Coulee Dam School District board meeting tonight, July 20, at 5:30 p.m., in which they will discuss the upcoming 2020-21 school year. There will be no public comment period at the meeting. The meeting can be accessed on Zoom at https://gcdsd.zoom.us/j/677070515...
GCD School District #301J Budget Hearing Notice Notice is hereby given that Grand Coulee Dam School District #301J, will hold a public budget hearing to review the 2020-2021 budget in the Lake Roosevelt Jr. /Sr. High School Library at 5:30 p.m. on the 27th day of July, 2020. Regular board meeting will follow the hearing. B. Paul Turner, Superintendent Grand Coulee Dam School District No. 301J (Publish July 15 & 22, 2020) City of Electric City CALL FOR BIDS FOR 2018 JEEP RENEGADE The City of Electric City will sell by sealed bid the following:... Full story