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2 weeks ago | 
cascadiadaily.com | Charlotte Alden
Western Washington University employees will see another layoff announcement this summer, totaling an additional $2 million to $3 million in savings. This will be the third layoff announcement in the past year by the university, which faced a projected $20 million deficit between recurring revenues and expenses in June 2024. Since then, the university announced the layoffs or eliminations of 74 positions and undertook cuts and reorganizations university-wide.
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2 weeks ago | 
cascadiadaily.com | Charlotte Alden
A tactical law enforcement training during the school day on June 11 at Ferndale High School wasn’t approved by school district administrators. While these kinds of trainings aren’t uncommon, they typically wouldn’t be approved during the school day and without alerting the community in advance, said the district’s spokesperson Celina Rodriguez. But this time, a request by the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office didn’t make it through the proper channels, said Rodriguez.
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2 weeks ago | 
cascadiadaily.com | Charlotte Alden
Starting at 8 a.m. on Sunday, June 15, a stage one burn ban will go into effect for residents in unincorporated Whatcom and Skagit counties. A stage one burn ban prohibits land clearing and yard debris burning, and suspends all issued burn permits. Recreational fires with the landowner’s permission are still allowed, but they must meet a list of requirements, including that they must only contain seasoned firewood or charcoal and must be in an enclosure.
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2 weeks ago | 
cascadiadaily.com | Charlotte Alden
Whatcom County residents will have some new ways to get around starting Sunday, June 15, with the addition of four new bus routes.
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2 weeks ago | 
cascadiadaily.com | Charlotte Alden
Layoffs have started at Whatcom Community College as administrators work to overcome a $3 million-plus deficit. The college will undertake a total of $1.5 million in staff reductions next fiscal year, adding to more than $500,000 in reductions in the current fiscal year. That includes staff layoffs — some non-represented staff received notice yesterday that their positions would be eliminated, said Nathan Langstraat, the college’s vice-president for administrative services.
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2 weeks ago | 
cascadiadaily.com | Charlotte Alden
If passed as is, President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to federal education funding would pull millions of dollars from Whatcom and Skagit schools. That’s according to numbers released last week by Washington’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), based on schools’ 2023–24 funding data. In Whatcom and Skagit counties, Bellingham and Mount Vernon school districts could see the biggest fiscal impact, with an estimated $1.34 million cut and $2.38 million cut, respectively.
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3 weeks ago | 
cascadiadaily.com | Charlotte Alden
A nonprofit that has worked to improve graduation rates of foster youth across the state lost $7.4 million in state funding due to budget cuts. Treehouse, a nonprofit founded in 1988 to serve youth in care, has had its state funding cut this year, said CEO Dawn Rains, amounting to about a third of its total budget. That means 65% less funding for a program that helps foster students plot a path towards graduation. More than 300 foster students live in Whatcom and Skagit counties.
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3 weeks ago | 
cascadiadaily.com | Charlotte Alden
One word united graduating seniors across 14 school districts in Whatcom and Skagit counties: empathy. In group conversations, seniors stressed the need for more kindness and understanding in society. They said it’s something they want to continue embracing in their own lives, especially in such polarized times. Cascadia Daily News asked schools in Whatcom and Skagit counties to select students to meet with a reporting team to hear their views about life after graduation.
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3 weeks ago | 
cascadiadaily.com | Charlotte Alden
WWU students who went on strike in an effort to get the university to recognize their union reached a resolution with the administration on Thursday, June 5. The university hasn’t agreed to recognize the union of operational student employees, who work as resident advisors, recreation assistants and more. But it did agree to provide much of what the students wanted.
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3 weeks ago | 
cascadiadaily.com | Charlotte Alden
Former student journalists who filed a lawsuit against Western Washington University for violating public records law have used some of the settlement earnings to establish an investigative journalism fund at Western. Last year, Western was penalized for withholding sexual assault records, the result of a lawsuit filed by alumni Erasmus Baxter, Asia Fields and Julia Furukawa. The three alumni were awarded $111,780.
