Category Archives: Education

Articles, Education, Health, Youth

Trillium Offers ‘Third Space’ For Teens In A Community Where Accessing Mental Health Support Is A Challenge

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Thumbnail Image Courtesy of Trillium Teen Center

Trillium Teen Center didn’t plant the idea for a youth-centered program focusing on online safety, but it did allow Annaliese Carrillo space to think it up.

Annaliese, an eighth-grader at Smith River School, said it was through a summer program at the Trillum Teen Center that she realized sextortion was a problem for kids. She was able to interview Ted Talk speaker Jesse Leon and is working on a program called Cyber Bite to educate families about online safety.

“Trillium feels like a place that can connect us to opportunities and resources like that and help us make our community safer,” Annaliese told Del Norte County supervisors on Dec. 9.

Continue reading Trillium Offers ‘Third Space’ For Teens In A Community Where Accessing Mental Health Support Is A Challenge →
Articles, Education, Local Government

DNUSD’s Budget Shortfall Shrank Since June, Cost Reductions Still Needed, Assistant Superintendent Says

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Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

Del Norte Unified School District is in a better place financially than it was in June when trustees adopted its 2025-26 budget.

But, though he said DNUSD’s budget deficit decreased 20% from about $4.6 million on June 30 to $3.4 million as of Thursday, Assistant Superintendent of Business Greg Bowen said reducing the district’s overall costs need to continue. This includes a potential “reduction in force” as well as an ongoing “hiring frost” this year, Bowen said in his first interim financial report to the Board of Trustees.

This recommendation prompted DNUSD Board President Charlaine Mazzei to call for more transparency about what reductions need to be made and when.

Continue reading DNUSD’s Budget Shortfall Shrank Since June, Cost Reductions Still Needed, Assistant Superintendent Says →
Articles, Education, Elections, Local Government

Michael Greer’s Prop. 50 Opposition Resolution Fails Twice With School Board Colleagues

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Greer | DNUSD

Thumbnail photo: Under new proposed Congressional District boundaries, Del Norte County would share a representative with Shasta, Siskiyou and Modoc counties, which are currently in District 1. | Photo courtesy of the Senate Election and Constitutional Amendments Committee.

Michael Greer made two unsuccessful attempts Thursday at getting his fellow school board members to officially oppose Proposition 50. 

Greer’s resolution before the Del Norte County Office of Education Board of Trustees and a similar resolution before the Del Norte County Unified School District Board had the same outcomes — dying due to lack of a second.

“I brought this (forward) because I believe that local communities, local school boards, local county offices of education, the county Board of Supervisors and the city itself needs to take part in a political process especially when it affects our California Constitution,” Greer said during the DNUSD Board meeting after acknowledging that the resolution he presented before the County Board failed to get a second motion. “The proposition takes away the opportunity to have that community support.”

Continue reading Michael Greer’s Prop. 50 Opposition Resolution Fails Twice With School Board Colleagues →
Editorials, Education, Local Government, Opinion

Editorial: Keep Party Politics Out Of Our Local Government

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Thumbnail photo: The Del Norte Unified School District Board of Trustees from left to right: Frank Magarino, Charlaine Mazzei, Don McArthur, Abbie Crist and Michael Greer. Courtesy of DNUSD.org.

This first editorial is the collective opinion of Redwood Voice Community News and KFUG Community Radio LLP and is separate from our regular news coverage. To make your own opinion known to us, email redwoodvoicedn@gmail.com.

It’s not lost on Redwood Voice Community News and KFUG Community Radio LLP that we are stating our opinion about a local elected official stating his opinion.

But when said elected official, in this case Del Norte Unified School District Trustee Michael Greer, seeks to make his opinion DNUSD’s official opinion by asking his colleagues to approve a resolution, we need to speak up.

Greer plans to ask his fellow school board members on Thursday to “adopt a position of opposition to Proposition 50.” For anyone who doesn’t know, if it passes, Prop. 50 would be California’s response to Texas’s efforts to add five more Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives through Congressional redistricting.

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Articles, Community News, Education, Transportation, Youth

Despite ‘Making Strides,’ Students Were Nearly An Hour Late To School, DNUSD Transportation Director Says

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Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

Del Norte County Unified School District’s transportation director painted as optimistic a picture as he could when describing the first week of school for trustees.

But, though he said things have improved, Chris Armington admitted to cases where students were nearly an hour late getting to school.

“We are making strides to make sure that communications do go out to the parents,” he told trustees on Thursday. “I work with [DNUSD communications director] Michael Hawkins on communicating our shortages and our lates to the community, and we ask parents to assist if they can take their students rather than them being super late.”

Continue reading Despite ‘Making Strides,’ Students Were Nearly An Hour Late To School, DNUSD Transportation Director Says →
Articles, Education, Youth

DNUSD Recap: Trustees Create Budget Committee, Discusse Science Instruction and Climate Change

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Among the items discussed at Thursday’s Del Norte County Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting:

Standing Budget Committee:  Trustees approved the creation of a formal budget committee with dedicated meetings that will focus on how to be transparent about the district’s financial situation with all stakeholders, including parents.

Coming two months after he and his colleagues approved a 2025-26 budget amid warnings that DNUSD faces a slow decline in revenue and an increase in expenditures, District 5 Trustee Michael Greer said the meetings will be public.

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Articles, Community News, Education

DNUSD Board of Trustees Roundup, June 30, 2025

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Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

Board President and Trustee Area 4 representative Charlaine Mazzei was absent. Among the items discussed at the Del Norte Unified School District Board meeting on Monday:

Seamless Summer Food Program: DNUSD’s director of nutrition services, Julie Bjorkstrand, gave trustees a brief rundown of the first two weeks of DNUSD’s Seamless Summer Food program. During the first week of the program the school district fed 800 students, providing them a total of six days worth of meals. During the second week, 1,312 students were fed and as of Monday, 512 have collected meals.

Meals are distributed Mondays and Wednesdays with two breakfasts and two lunches being provided per child on Mondays and four breakfast meals and four lunch meals provided per child on Wednesdays. 

Continue reading DNUSD Board of Trustees Roundup, June 30, 2025 →
Articles, Education

DNUSD Leaders Adopt 2025-26 Budget Amid Warnings Of A Structural Deficit, More Cuts

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Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

(Updated at 5:41 p.m. to clarify that Elizabeth Calleja is a parent of Redwood School students. Calleja said Wednesday afternoon that while she’s a long-time teacher with Del Norte Unified School District, she currently teaches at Castle Rock Charter School.)

Superintendent Jeff Harris pointed to another single-county school district to illustrate what could befall Del Norte Unified if its financial situation didn’t improve.

During a budget presentation where trustees learned that DNUSD faces a structural deficit over the next three years, Harris said the other single-district county took out a state loan and, five months later, was facing state receivership.

“What that means is the Board loses a lot of [their] authority. Everything is directly reported to the state,” Harris told trustees Monday, adding that student enrollment and revenues have declined statewide. “So it’s really critical that we all keep an eye not only on what’s going on next year, but the two years after that because they ended up owing $10 million on a $40 million budget and they didn’t have enough cash left to cover any of it.”

Continue reading DNUSD Leaders Adopt 2025-26 Budget Amid Warnings Of A Structural Deficit, More Cuts →
Articles, Community News, Crescent City, Education, Youth

Del Norte High School’s 2025 Graduation Ceremony

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It was a picturesquely sunny day when Del Norte High School held its 132nd annual graduation commencement for the Class of 2025. Families and friends filled the home side of Mike Whalen Field on Friday and then some to see their graduates. 

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Articles, Education, Youth

Mountain School In Gasquet May Lose A Teacher As DNUSD Grapples With Budget Deficit

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Thumbnail photo by Aisling Bludworth

(Updated at 4:42 p.m. Wednesday: Del Norte Unified School District Director of Communication Mike Hawkins offered a clarification regarding class sizes in the district. While class sizes are changing, many are still fairly small, he said.)

Brandiy Dixon’s days teaching third through fifth grades at Mountain School in Gasquet appear to be numbered.

But instead of fighting to keep her job when she appeared before the Del Norte County Unified School District Board of Trustees on Thursday, Dixon said she was concerned about her colleagues, who will now be expected to cover five grade levels each, and her students.

“The maturation gap between a 4 year old and a 9 year old and a 9 year old and a 14 year old is enormous,” she said. “These are formative years where students need targeted academic support, clear routines and peer connections appropriate at their stage of development. This structure risks students feeling overlooked, frustrated or unsupported, especially those who already need scaffolding to succeed.”

Continue reading Mountain School In Gasquet May Lose A Teacher As DNUSD Grapples With Budget Deficit →