Tiffany McCormick picked up a student’s world history textbook and flipped to the publication date: 2001. By now, the book itself seems like ancient history.
The sixth-grade language arts and history teacher at Washougal’s Canyon Creek Middle School finds her class moving further away from their textbooks and gravitating toward their Apple iPads instead. The tablet computers have opened the class to a world of changing information.
“The iPad has gotten us up to date with what’s going on in the world,” McCormick said. “We barely use the book anymore. We’re basically phasing it out.”
McCormick is one of hundreds of teachers throughout Clark County who have introduced tablets, Chromebooks or other Internet-enabled devices into their lessons. Rather than using an outdated textbook written for a national audience, interactive ebooks and other curriculum are being tailored for school districts, and even can be adapted for an individual student. New software apps make it possible for students to explore subjects in depth in ways not possible with a textbook.
Only a few years after being introduced, tablets and mobile computing devices are revolutionizing public schools here and across the U.S. at a cost of millions of dollars. Teachers say it’s worth it, as more and more software is developed to enrich curriculum.
After nearly a yearlong hiatus, the committee considering a possible shake-up of the C-Tran Board of Directors will reconvene next month.
But unlike at its last meeting in December 2013, the group will resume deliberations knowing that a reorganization of the C-Tran board will likely eliminate the veto power now held by Clark County and the city of Vancouver. That’s what a county judge ruled in September following a monthslong legal dispute.
Before the C-Tran board composition review was halted late last year, there appeared to be some momentum for giving the smaller cities more representation on the transit agency’s governing body. That would require either Vancouver or Clark County to give up at least one seat on the nine-member board.
Changing the number of seats for either of those jurisdictions would also invalidate the veto power both have held since C-Tran’s inception, according to Clark County Superior Court Judge David Gregerson.
Vancouver has made it clear it’s not interested in losing a seat on the board, or its veto power. That stance likely hasn’t changed. But Vancouver holds only one vote on the 10-member committee that will decide what the C-Tran board looks like.
The review committee will include at least one new face in Clark County Commissioner Ed Barnes, appointed earlier this year. Barnes said he’d prefer to keep the C-Tran board as is, an arrangement that has worked fine in the past.
Morning Briefing Newsletter
Get a rundown of the latest local and regional news every Mon-Fri morning.
Barnes said he understands the concerns raised by Vancouver. The city accounts for almost 60 percent of C-Tran’s sales tax revenue, and more than 80 percent of its ridership.
“Without the city of Vancouver, there wouldn’t be any C-Tran,” Barnes said.
Skamania County commissioners have declared a “state of emergency,” decrying what they describe as mismanagement of federal forestland that they say has hamstrung the financially battered county and created extreme fire danger.
In a strongly worded resolution passed unanimously Oct. 7, the commissioners called for “immediate action” to eliminate hazardous conditions, and asked the U.S. Forest Service to coordinate a meeting to address the subject. The resolution also asked state and federal authorities to provide emergency funding for tree thinning to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires.
Skamania County leaders have long called for an increase to tax-generating timber harvests on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, which used to be one of the biggest timber producers in the Northwest. With almost 90 percent of the county’s land owned by the federal and state governments, the county’s fate is determined largely by land it doesn’t control. Yet despite repeated pleas, the dire situation hasn’t improved, said Skamania County Commissioner Chris Brong.
“They’re tone-deaf. They just don’t respond,” Brong said. “I have to question whether they’re even reading the materials that we’re sending them.”
The forest service received the commissioners’ resolution on Wednesday, said acting public affairs officer Diana Perez.
“We’re reviewing the resolution, and we very much value our relationship with Skamania County,” Perez said.
The two-legged boxer stole hearts across the country after a video of the dog playing on the beach went viral earlier this year.
Last week, Duncan and his humans, Amanda Giese and Gary Walters of Felida, flew to Los Angeles to tape an appearance on “The Queen Latifah Show.” The episode is scheduled to broadcast at 8 a.m. today on KPDX (PDX TV), which is Channel 13 on Comcast.
In a brief video preview for the upcoming show, Duncan is introduced as “a dog that will inspire you to never give up” as video rolls of the playful pup on the beach. Then Duncan, wearing a royal blue bow tie, walks onto the stage with Giese and Walters as members of the audience wipe tears from their eyes.
Giese and Walters run a nonprofit animal rescue organization, Panda Paws Rescue, from their home. They regularly post photos and videos of their dogs and the visiting animals on the rescue’s Facebook and YouTube pages.
While other videos of Duncan have garnered attention, nothing compares to the two-minute beach video, which now has more than 5 million views. The video made headlines across the U.S. — including stories on CNN and the “Today” show — and beyond, including Spain, Australia and the U.K.
A claim by Republican Clark County Commissioner David Madore that adopting a county charter will cost taxpayers money has prompted the county’s budget manager to say Madore’s assertion is not factually correct.
In an email to Nan Henriksen, who chaired the board of 15 elected nonpartisan freeholders that drafted the proposed charter, Clark County Budget Manager Bob Stevens wrote that Madore’s claim is based on assumptions “not proscribed by the county charter.”
On Friday, Madore hung up on a reporter after refusing to explain why he assumes a new full-time deputy county manager would be hired. Before hanging up, Madore said he would not make any direct statements to The Columbian and that the best way to communicate with him was through his Facebook page.
Madore opposes the charter, which, among other things, expands the board from three members to five.
The charter will be on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Increasing the number of board members would not cost more money, Stevens concluded, as salaries would be reduced by nearly half to $53,000 a year, except for the chairman, who would receive more.
“It has come to my attention that Commissioner Madore has made a post to Facebook that calls into question the financial analysis that I personally performed for the freeholders in their charter deliberations,” Stevens wrote to Henriksen. “I want you, as chair of that group, to know that I stand behind my analysis completely and without reservation. The changes proposed in the charter presented to the voters are budget neutral. In other words, the charter does not include any provision that would cause an increase in the budget,” he wrote.
“I personally contacted Commissioner Madore about his post and informed him that I stand by my initial work.”
