There were hugs and high fives. New backpacks, new shoes and carefully styled hair. There were a few nerves, a few tears and at least one wistful backward glance. In short, it was a pretty typical first day of school Wednesday for students in the Peninsula School District. It felt … dare we say it?
When classes started last year, Peninsula School District scrambled to cover classrooms and bus routes due to social distancing measures to stem Covid-19. The outlook is more favorable this year, with pandemic restrictions easing. Meanwhile, a new teachers’ contract brings Peninsula classified educators’ pay more in line with surrounding districts. Some staffing gaps remain, however.
Tacoma Community College has long had an English as a Second Language program for adults seeking to improve their fluency in reading, writing and speaking English. But until this year, residents of Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula had to cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to access classes. Word of a growing need for ESL
Our wet spring brought a welcome reprieve from wildfires and smoke that have plagued Western Washington in recent years. But summer isn’t over by a long shot, and wildfire season is just getting started. Several fires that started last week in Eastern Washington — one a brush fire that led to the evacuation of a
Peninsula and Gig Harbor high school students will have the chance to train for drone pilot certification starting this spring, the Peninsula School District announced Wednesday. Students in the district’s Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) will also be eligible for the classes, which will teach students how to fly drones and earn a
The new contract also calls for lower class sizes in the youngest grades.
Supply chain issues will slow the process, Peninsula’s facilities head says.
If Peninsula School District were a corporation, its 2022-26 Strategic Plan would be the equivalent of a long-term business plan. But instead of delivering commercial goods or services, the district is a publicly funded entity. Its “customers” are its more than 9,000 students and their families. Its stakeholders include roughly 600 teachers and nearly 400
The Class of 2022 has lived the arc of the COVID-19 pandemic. They began with a normal freshman year. In spring of their sophomore year, schools shut down and learning went entirely online, a benefit to some but a challenge for so many students who struggled with social isolation. High school students across the country
Parents of students at Discovery Elementary School on Wednesday got a chance to sound off about the lack of interior classroom doors, an issue that lately resurfaced as a security concern. Since the May 24 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Peninsula School District officials have fielded complaints about the school’s “open concept” design, which also
