With schools throughout Humboldt County having been shuttered to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Access Humboldt is trying to bridge the digital divide. At least temporarily. The nonprofit reached out to Altice-Suddenlink, which agreed to offer households with students in its service area that don’t currently have internet access free broadband for 60 days. At […]
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Phone Calls, Online Payment Encouraged as Government Offices Adjust to COVID-19
Local cities, school districts, the county and state agencies are changing the way they do businesses due to the coronavirus, including closing to the public and/or curtailing direct interaction with staff. With the COVID-19 situation constantly shifting, here is a roundup of basic information on operations across the region as they stand on March 18. […]
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UDPATED: Almost All County Schools to Close in Effort to Prevent COVID-19 Spread
THIRD UPDATE: Eureka City Schools Trustee Mario Fernandez announced on Facebook that the school board has decided to close all school sites, with their tentative return to classes April 20, 2020. Find a spreadsheet the Humboldt County Office of Education put together to track closures by licking here. SECOND UPDATE: The Humboldt County Office of […]
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‘Encroachment:’ Inadequate Special Education Funding Leaves Local Districts Stretched Thin
A bill introduced earlier this year by North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman would make good on long-promised funding for special education. It also puts a spotlight on the issue in Humboldt County, where disproportionate rates of students need special education services and inadequate state and federal funding streams leave districts’ budgets stretched thin. Take Northern […]
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Interdistrict Transfer Agreement Reached
After several months of uncertainty for local parents whose children are enrolled in schools outside of their home districts, the Humboldt County Office of Education has clarified its policy on interdistrict attendance. In a press release, the HCOE confirmed local superintendents have agreed on some guidelines for transfers. These include an open enrollment period for […]
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Humboldt County Grand Jury: ‘Be Wise, Immunize’
In its first report of the year, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury took a look at the county’s low vaccination rates, noting we currently rank 54th out of the state’s 58 counties when it comes to kindergartners and seventh graders. The grand jury hones in on transportation as a major barrier to getting the […]
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Anti-Vax Measure Won’t See the Ballot
Efforts to repeal California’s new mandatory vaccination law have failed. Signed into law in June by Gov. Jerry Brown, the new law requires that all children be vaccinated for a variety of infectious diseases before attending school, closing a long-standing exemption for families that opted not to vaccinate due to religious or personal beliefs. The […]
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Beyond the Scandal
Voter enthusiasm for school board elections is typically pretty low — unless your board happens to have a raging plagiarism scandal. Such is the case in the Northern Humboldt Union High School District, where board members have spent the past four months dealing with fallout from fellow trustee Dan Johnson’s plagiarized speech at Arcata High […]
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Two More School Districts Facing Debt Decisions
Update Friday Dec. 7: Make that at least three school districts getting ready to issue new bonds with so-far-unknown structures. The McKinleyville Press blog reports today that the Northern Humboldt Union School District is scheduled to vote Tuesday night on issuing more bonds. (Voters approved that borrowing in a 2010 election. The two districts mentioned […]