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KEITH EASTHOUSE
Redway School To Get ‘Fried’ Phone System Replaced
KEITH EASTHOUSE

In a unanimous vote, the governing board of the Southern Humboldt Unified School District approved last Thursday the hiring of a Eureka firm to install a new telephone and voice mail system at Redway Elementary.

The decision was made during the board’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting, which took place this time around at South Fork High School in Miranda.

KEITH EASTHOUSE
KEITH EASTHOUSE
Automated External Defibrillators Insurance Coverage Discussed at Aug. 15 School Board Meeting
KEITH EASTHOUSE

Call it a cautionary letter.

In a two-page missive dated Aug. 15, the insurance carrier for the Southern Humboldt Unified School District issued what amounts to a warning: It will not cover any claims that result from the use of Automated External Defibrillators, or AEDs, at the district’s school sites.

Used properly, the portable electronic device can diagnose and treat the potentially life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias known as ventricular fibrillations. It does so through the application of an electrical shock that allows the heart to reestablish its normal rhythm.

KEITH EASTHOUSE
KEITH EASTHOUSE
Contract Talks Stall Between Teachers, District
KEITH EASTHOUSE

Contract talks between the Southern Humboldt Teachers Association and the Southern Humboldt Unified School District have stalled over the extent to which the district should cover teachers’ health care benefits, negotiators on both sides said last week.

There are also differences over how much of a salary increase, known as a cost of living adjustment, or COLA, teachers should receive. And the two sides are making different assertions about the amount of money the district has in reserve, with teachers claiming that it’s greater than the district is saying.

KEITH EASTHOUSE
Public Addresses School Board on Staff Issues
SANDY FERETTO
Public Addresses School Board on Staff Issues
SANDY FERETTO

The Southern Humboldt Unified School District board of trustees meeting on June 9 was well attended by parents and teachers and there was participation during the public comment session.

Redway teacher Claire Piccinelli read a letter to the board asking for equitable health care for all district employees.

SANDY FERETTO
SHUSD Board Moves Forward on Modernization Projects
SANDY FERETTO
SHUSD Board Moves Forward on Modernization Projects
SANDY FERETTO

The Southern Humboldt Unified School District Board of Trustees were presented with updates on the plans to improve the gym at South Fork High School and to upgrade Redway School at a special meeting on May 26.

Architect Guy Fryer of Siskiyou Design Group was at the meeting accompanied by designers Seth Curry and Israel Salcedo, along with district contractor Dirk Dinsmore of Dinsmore Construction, to discuss the projects.

SANDY FERETTO
Students Willing to Fundraise for Lockers at MJHS, SFHS
SANDY FERETTO
Students Willing to Fundraise for Lockers at MJHS, SFHS
SANDY FERETTO

The Southern Humboldt Unified School District board of trustees held their regular meeting at Casterlin School in Blocksburg on Thursday, May 12.

In a presentation to the board, Miranda Junior High School Associated Student Body officers Marian Del Rio, Franny Genolio, Mason Cabral and Byron Weston asked the board for permission to raise money to get lockers for Miranda Junior High and South Fork High Schools.

SANDY FERETTO
‘Creepy and Fun’: South Fork’s ‘Widdershins’ Starts May 19
KEITH EASTHOUSE
‘Creepy and Fun’: South Fork’s ‘Widdershins’ Starts May 19
KEITH EASTHOUSE

When the character you portray on stage is in every scene, it helps if you’re the kind of actor that doesn’t mind being the focus of sustained attention.

That’s the case for Chance McFarland, a South Fork High School sophomore who’s playing the lead character — Inspector Ruffing — in “Widdershins,” this year’s version of the annual spring play put on by the school’s Performing Arts Department. The play, an atmospheric murder mystery set in 1902 Great Britain, opens Thursday, May 19 at the Mateel Community Center.

KEITH EASTHOUSE
South Fork Senior Recruited to Play Soccer for Boise State
SANDY FERETTO
South Fork Senior Recruited to Play Soccer for Boise State
SANDY FERETTO

South Fork High School senior Ashleigh Harrison’s soccer scholarship to Boise State University was celebrated at a gathering of her friends, family, and South Fork staff on Wednesday, May 4.

Harrison had been recruited in February by the coach at Boise State University to play soccer there, South Fork High School counselor tech Ann Constantino said.

SANDY FERETTO
New SFHS Principal’s Goal: ‘Be a Role Model for Students’
KEITH EASTHOUSE
New SFHS Principal’s Goal: ‘Be a Role Model for Students’
KEITH EASTHOUSE

For football fans of a certain vintage, the words “Coach Landry” immediately conjures up images of Tom Landry, the legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys for 29 years, from 1960 to 1988.

But it turns out there’s another Coach Landry — Jeff Landry, a former football coach at College of the Redwoods who late last month was hired as the new principal at South Fork High School effective July 1.

KEITH EASTHOUSE
SANDY FERETTO
School Board Will Leave 6th-Grade Promotion Celebrations Up to Schools
SANDY FERETTO

In a reversal of an earlier decision, the Southern Humboldt Unified School District Board of Trustees has opted to let schools celebrate sixth-grade promotions however they choose.

At a retreat last June, the school board directed district administration to have all sixth-grade promotions occur during the school day, board president Dennis O’Sullivan said at a recent school board meeting.

SANDY FERETTO
Report: High Rate of Adverse Childhoods in North Coast Counties
DANIEL MINTZ
Report: High Rate of Adverse Childhoods in North Coast Counties
DANIEL MINTZ

An agency that administers tobacco tax-funded children’s programs states that Humboldt and Mendocino counties have the highest percentage in the state of adult residents who’ve had adverse childhood experiences.

At its April 19 meeting, the Board of Supervisors fielded an annual report from First 5 Humboldt, the commission that oversees spending of Proposition 10 tobacco tax revenue on children’s and families’ programs.

 

DANIEL MINTZ
School Layoffs Draw Community Reaction
KEITH EASTHOUSE
School Layoffs Draw Community Reaction
KEITH EASTHOUSE

A staff restructuring at Miranda Junior High and South Fork High School, combined with the news that three teachers would be let go at the end of the school year, made for a stormy and lengthy school board meeting last Thursday.

The meeting, before a crowd of close to 30 people at Redway Elementary, was marked by a public comment period in which a number of speakers rose to voice objections to the personnel changes.

One source of concern had to do with something that was slated to be voted on that night: a district proposal to eliminate two staff positions involving popular and longtime employees — a student services technician position at Miranda Junior High held by Donna Bowman and a similar position at South Fork held by Ann Constantino.

KEITH EASTHOUSE
KEITH EASTHOUSE
Weott School Tops Repair List
KEITH EASTHOUSE

When it comes to schools in the Southern Humboldt Unified School District that are in need of repairs, Agnes J. Johnson Elementary in Weott is at the top of the list.

“The situation at Agnes Johnson is an emergency,” District Superintendent Catherine Scott declared matter-of-factly.

Scott was speaking the day after the district’s Board of Trustees gathered at South Fork High School last Thursday to discuss “facilities needs throughout the district,” as the agenda for the meeting put it.

KEITH EASTHOUSE
SHUSD Board Tours Whitethorn School
SANDY FERETTO
SHUSD Board Tours Whitethorn School
SANDY FERETTO

More than a dozen parents advocated for Whitethorn Elementary School when the Southern Humboldt Unified School District Board of Trustees met there on March 10.

During the public comment portion of the meeting people expressed concerns about the plan to cut a teacher position at Whitethorn next year due to a projected drop in enrollment. Support was requested in the form of teachers’ aides, and the parents pointed out the need for a custodian and a school secretary at the site.

SANDY FERETTO
Arts Program at Mateel SPARCs Emerging Talent
SANDY FERETTO
Arts Program at Mateel SPARCs Emerging Talent
SANDY FERETTO

Twenty-six students were busy at the Mateel Community Center creating music and collage last Tuesday. They are learning art through the SPARC (Spring Arts Collective) program that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays after school throughout March and April.

Cathryn Guillette and Laci Dane Coelho are the teachers of the program that is in its fifth year of providing well-rounded exposure to art to youth ages 11 to 17.

SANDY FERETTO
KEITH EASTHOUSE
Whitethorn School Loses a Teacher to Low Enrollment
KEITH EASTHOUSE

In a unanimous vote, the governing board of the Southern Humboldt Unified School District decided last Thursday to reduce the number of teachers at Whitethorn School in the upcoming school year.

If the decision holds, Whitethorn, a K-6 school, will have three teachers in 2016-2017. Presently, the school has four teachers for its 70 students.

The reason for the step had to do with the school’s attendance rates, which for some time have been low compared to other schools in the district.

KEITH EASTHOUSE