COVID-19 updates from San Juan Coun­ty around sub­jects on the minds of islanders As we head into the sec­ond half of August, local pub­lic and pri­vate schools are pur­su­ing a range of options for the start of the school year. This arti­cle will not be address­ing the specifics of school reopen­ing plans-that will come direct­ly  Con­tin­ue Reading

This 2020 Fair sea­son, Alche­my Art Cen­ter is grate­ful to be fea­tured in the San Juan Island Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion’s Match­ing Grant Pro­gram!  We are rais­ing funds for the free kids arts pro­gram­ming we are cur­rent­ly offer­ing in part­ner­ship with Island Rec and the Fam­i­ly Resource Cen­ter, as well as for the Kid Pod Class­es we  Con­tin­ue Reading

At last evening’s spe­cial board meet­ing, the San Juan Island School Dis­trict Board of Direc­tors approved a fall reopen­ing plan for schools.  After sev­er­al months of plan­ning with the dis­trict work­groups and steer­ing com­mit­tee, Super­in­ten­dent Fred Woods rec­om­mend­ed to the Board that the San Juan Island pub­lic schools begin the 2020–2021 school year under a  Con­tin­ue Reading

We hear from Maude at the School Dis­trict… The San Juan Island School Dis­trict Board of Direc­tors will hold a Spe­cial School Board Meet­ing on Thurs­day August 6, at 5:00 pm as a Zoom meet­ing.  This meet­ing is open to the pub­lic.   To access the Zoom meet­ing, please click on “Video” with­in the elec­tron­ic Board Agen­da, or call the  Con­tin­ue Reading

Gov­er­nor Inslee announces edu­ca­tion rec­om­men­da­tions for 2020–2021 school year… San Juan Coun­ty is among 5 coun­ties in Wash­ing­ton State that are con­sid­ered “Low Risk” for COVID-19. Plans regard­ing school reopen­ing are made by the local health juris­dic­tion and school dis­trict. Gov. Jay Inslee, Super­in­ten­dent of Pub­lic Instruc­tion Chris Reyk­dal and DOH’s state health offi­cer, Dr.  Con­tin­ue Reading

There is a lot going on at the Alche­my Art Cen­ter.   Dear Par­ents,   We have been look­ing for­ward to get­ting back to mak­ing art in per­son, and have some thoughts on how we can do so as safe­ly as pos­si­ble!   It seems to us that school will prob­a­bly not be back to “nor­mal” in  Con­tin­ue Reading

The Fri­day Har­bor High School Aero­space Team is at it again! The 2020 Inter­na­tion­al Space Set­tle­ment Design Com­pe­ti­tion just fin­ished, though with­out trav­el­ling to NASA as in the last two years. The Aero­space Team’s name this year is “Grum­bo” (think Grum­man mixed with Boe­ing) and the Fri­day Har­bor High School Team joined with teams from  Con­tin­ue Reading

By Louise Dus­trude When the new Vis­i­tor Cen­ter opens at Amer­i­can Camp next sum­mer there will be some famil­iar fea­tures — the curved-trunk Dou­glas fir at the entrance, the small clump of black locust trees with­in the park­ing lot, and the friend­ly, knowl­edge­able Nation­al Park Ser­vice staff and vol­un­teers to answer ques­tions. There will also  Con­tin­ue Reading

Although 2020 has been an incred­i­bly chal­leng­ing school year, the San Juan Island Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion car­ried on its tra­di­tion of award­ing annu­al schol­ar­ships to local stu­dents. Over the last few months, SJICF has award­ed just under $150k in col­lege schol­ar­ships and awards to 39 local stu­dents for the 2020–2021 school year. 9 grad­u­at­ing seniors from Fri­day Har­bor High  Con­tin­ue Reading

High School Juniors and Seniors can earn tuition-free col­lege cred­it at Skag­it Val­ley Col­lege through the Run­ning Start pro­gram Did you know that High School Juniors and Seniors can earn tuition-free col­lege cred­it at SVC while still in high school through the Run­ning Start pro­gram? Stu­dents and fam­i­lies are invit­ed to attend a vir­tu­al info  Con­tin­ue Reading

Skag­it Val­ley Col­lege to talk about Marine Trades train­ing at vir­tu­al info night July 22 Skag­it Val­ley Col­lege will be talk­ing about Marine Trades train­ing and employ­ment at a Zoom info ses­sion on Wed., July 22, 6–7pm. Learn how SVC’s Marine Main­te­nance Tech­nol­o­gy pro­gram can pow­er up your new career! To reg­is­ter please vis­it https://sforce.co/3fHmwJS SVC’s  Con­tin­ue Reading

The North Pacif­ic Right Whale: Why You Should Care about the World’s Rarest Whale Join Friends of the San Juans and Kevin Cam­pi­on of Deep Green Wilder­ness on July 23 at 6:30 pm to hear about Kevin and his team’s expe­di­tions to film the North Pacif­ic right whale.  You’ll learn about what right whales mean for mod­ern con­ser­va­tion  Con­tin­ue Reading

2020 Sum­mer Marine Nat­u­ral­ist Train­ing Pro­gram will be Vir­tu­al The Whale Museum’s Sum­mer Marine Nat­u­ral­ist Pro­gram is going vir­tu­al. This dynam­ic and high-qual­i­­ty pro­gram will still be 6‑sessions and run on the fol­low­ing dates: July 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, and 22 with a one day­break on July 19. The object of this pro­gram is to  Con­tin­ue Reading

John Gey­man, M.D. announces the pub­li­ca­tion of his new book: Prof­i­teer­ing, Cor­rup­tion and Fraud in U.S. Health Care. He rais­es ques­tions that we have to ask and answer: Who is the health care sys­tem for — prof­its for health care cor­po­ra­tions, their share­hold­ers and Wall Street traders and investors? for cor­rupt and fraud­u­lent scam­mers? or for  Con­tin­ue Reading

Skag­it Val­ley Col­lege Con­tin­u­ing and Com­mu­ni­ty Edu­ca­tion to offer vir­tu­al Hoop Camp for youth This sum­mer, area youth can improve their bas­ket­ball fun­da­men­tals and skills with vir­tu­al Hoop Camps taught via Zoom by Skag­it Val­ley Col­lege Men’s Bas­ket­ball Head Coach, Carl How­ell. The camp will be offered via Zoom on July 21 and 22 from noon  Con­tin­ue Reading

This FHL Tide Bite was writ­ten by Jen Bur­naford… My first trip to UW Fri­day Har­bor Labs was in 1995. After com­plet­ing my under­grad­u­ate the­sis on fresh­wa­ter zoo­plank­ton and spend­ing a post-bac year chas­ing pri­mates through the jun­gles of Bor­neo, I had been accept­ed into the PhD pro­gram at Ore­gon State Uni­ver­si­ty in the Menge/Lubchenco  Con­tin­ue Reading