Grant funding has allowed neighborhood proponents to push for support services for students in an area of Spokane that has long-standing poverty and educational issues. That includes an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math training and increasing access to after- and out-of-school programming.

Teaching came naturally to Spokane Public Schools board candidate Kelli MacFarlane, but some of the greatest rewards came after the lessons were over. “I love hearing from students that say they never liked history, but learned so much from my class and really like history now,” said MacFarlane, who’s running for a six-year term at Position 2. “Every time a student comes to me and says they learned and got excited about learning, I knew education was my calling.”

As the election filing deadline approached last spring, it would have been easy for Erin Georgen and Kevin Morrison to take a pass on running for a spot on the Spokane Public Schools board.

NAC Architecture designed a building that will allow students to find the right current, the right eddy – and make a few friends along the way. They’ll also get to class a lot sooner, Principal Mark Lund promised Thursday afternoon at the ceremonial groundbreaking for the $43.5 million facility in northwest Spokane.

For Nikki Lockwood and Katey Treloar, a passion for education began long before either of them decided to run for the Spokane Public Schools board.

The problem is greater in Spokane than in most major districts in the state, and it’s getting worse – the result of deepening poverty, trauma, homelessness and the growing scarcity of affordable preschools and daycare.

The Safe Havens report, a 156-page document that was presented to the board last May, was presented in a more digestible form Wednesday night by Associate Superintendent Linda McDermott.

After an hourlong meeting in the Shadle Park High School gym, members of the Spokane Education Association voted 385 to 334, or 53.5% to 46.5%, to approve a tentative deal reached 10 days earlier.

The Gonzaga University School of Law is getting ready to launch a new mentorship program designed to pair a recent graduate interested in opening a solo practice with an experienced attorney.

Water, experience and maintaining quality are among the issues in the race to serve on the board that leads Spokane County’s smallest school district.

Candidates Susan Dolan and Debra Long are running for a position on the Central Valley School District board.

Almost a year after Spokane voters approved $575 million in school and library bonds, 20 ceremonial shovels were turned toward a project that Mayor David Condon calls the cornerstone for a “safer, smarter, healthier community.”

Last wekk’s climate protests highlighted an ongoing disconnect: While most states and many school districts have classroom standards that at least mention human-caused climate change, many teachers aren’t dealing with the subject.

“There is an agreement in principle,” Brian Coddington, the district’s director of communications and public relations, said Saturday evening. Until Oct. 8, no details will be revealed – not even the length of the proposed contract

“We are known as the transfer institution,” said Kimberlee Messina, the new president of Spokane Falls Community College. “What I think people don’t know is that we also have great associate degrees that lead directly to employment.”

Thanks to a $400,000 grant from the state Department of Commerce, the students at Northport School will no longer need to wear overcoats in class. On Thursday afternoon, Commerce Director Lisa Brown toured the campus, which now features a wood pellet boiler heating system that uses biomass, or renewable low-value wood products.