The Central Valley School District next month will ask voters for $11.8 million to hire a public safety employee and continue offering electives and extracurricular activities.

Good things happen for a reason, though Jerrall Haynes couldn’t see it through the snowflakes. A newly minted airman from South Carolina, he arrived in November of 2010 for his first assignment at Fairchild Air Force Base. Now, only 31, he’s the board president of the second largest school district in the state.

After the medal ceremony, former Gonzaga Prep football coach H.T. Higgins, Spokane County Superior Judge Tony Hazel, former Gonzaga University basketball player Jason Rubright and KREM news director Noah Cooper, among other Gonzaga Prep alums, posed for photos with Gleason and McClain.

It has been four decades since school boundaries were redrawn across Spokane. And for good reason.

The flyers, tens of thousands of them, arrived during the holidays at the homes of educators in Spokane and throughout the state. They were invitations from an Olympia-based conservative think tank to save that money by opting out of paying membership dues to the Washington Education Association, the statewide teacher’s union.

In Spokane, schools were built and new standards enacted even as educators were challenged by violence and the vaping epidemic and curriculum changes – ensuring another interesting decade ahead.

During Angela Lefler’s first-grade class at Finch Elementary School in northwest Spokane on Wednesday, some of her former students dropped by for an hour of play. Connect, Create and Remember, they call it at Finch, a bit of whimsy that couldn’t be timed any better.

Three area educators were honored at the Spokane Symphony’s Education Masterworks Concert in late November for their contributions to music education.

Colleges and universities across the United States are bracing for an “enrollment cliff” in about five years – the result of a downturn in birth rates after the Great Recession. Washington and Idaho are expected to fare well compared to other states, though schools in the region are rethinking their recruitment strategies.

Gene Sementi submitted his resignation, effective July 1. He has been a teacher and administrator at the West Valley School District for 31 years.

Central Valley School District will soon decide which schools the districts thousands of high school students will attend when the new Ridgeline High School opens in 2021.

The changeover – three new members out of five – is unprecedented for Spokane.