Education

Gig Harbor Now staff are proud to provide coverage of Peninsula School District, Tacoma Community College, private schools and home schools, emphasizing the value and experiences of learning here and beyond.

11 from Gig Harbor speech and debate team headed to nationals

Apr 05, 2023 | By:

Eleven members of Gig Harbor High School’s speech and debate team qualified for the National Speech and Debate Tournament, to be held in June in Phoenix. In January, coach Chris Coovert predicted up to seven Tides debaters might make the cut, but his team greatly exceeded his expectation. The 11 Gig Harbor debaters qualified during

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Peninsula School District to eliminate 40 non-teaching positions

Mar 24, 2023 | By:

The Peninsula School Board on Thursday approved a plan to cut $12 million from next school year’s budget by eliminating 40 staff positions, none of them teachers. The district needs to make the cuts, Chief Financial Officer Ashley Murphy said, because of lower enrollment coupled with the end of pandemic aid. School districts around the

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Captain Seahawk slashes lunch debt at Peninsula High School

Mar 23, 2023 | By:

The $6,000 donation was one of several items deemed routine business. The gift “to pay off delinquent lunch accounts” at Peninsula High School was accepted without discussion or debate as part of the Peninsula School Board’s Feb. 9 consent agenda. The donor was none other than “Captain Seahawk,” a Gig Harbor resident who raises money

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Peninsula School District embracing potential of ChatGPT

Mar 16, 2023 | By:

Kara Beloate, an English teacher at Peninsula High School, isn’t banning her students from using ChatGPT as part of their school work. She’s encouraging it. Released in November by OpenAI, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot that has creating a buzz for its uncanny ability to engage in dialog and to create original written content

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Peninsula School District likely facing $12 million budget gap in ’23-24

Mar 01, 2023 | By:

Peninsula School District is bracing for an estimated $12 million in budget cuts next year, stemming from reduced enrollment and the end of a pandemic school finance rule. The district announced the impending cuts Tuesday. The news came just two weeks after district officials and school supporters on Feb. 14 cheered the passage of a

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Investigator unable to substantiate alleged slur at girls basketball game

Feb 25, 2023 | By:

Allegations of a racial slur at a Jan. 11 girls’ basketball game between Gig Harbor and Peninsula high schools are unsubstantiated, according to an investigation initiated by Peninsula School District. Following the game, administrators at both high schools received reports that a member of the Gig Harbor High team used the N-word in a comment

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Purdy highway work will impact parking at Peninsula High

Feb 22, 2023 | By:

After being held up by winter and supply chain issues, work is expected to begin in March on replacing a fish-blocking culvert under the Highway 302 spur in Purdy. During the work, the 302 spur will be closed around the clock for up to eight months while crews remove the old culvert and replace it

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New Black Student Union at Gig Harbor High has big goals

Feb 20, 2023 | By:

Leila Jeneby and Jasmine Lopez felt an instant bond when they met this fall at Gig Harbor High School. Jeneby, a sophomore, had recently moved from Seattle. Lopez, a senior, gave her a tour of the school. Jeneby was surprised there was no Black Student Union among its list of clubs. “When she asked me

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Podcast helps Gig Harbor senior find her voice

Feb 15, 2023 | By:

With time to kill during the Covid-19 lockdown, Anna Daetwiler listened to a lot of podcasts. Now she has her own.  Daetwiler, a senior at Gig Harbor High School, recently launched the Honestly Noted podcast, featuring teen-centric topics and interviews with her contemporaries. It’s available on YouTube, Instagram and elsewhere.  The goal is to represent a

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Voters approving two Peninsula School District levies

Feb 14, 2023 | By:

Voters gave the Peninsula School District two Valentine’s Day gifts. By comfortable margins, voters approved both a local levy to replace an expiring one and a security and technology levy. The Pierce County Auditor’s Office posted preliminary election results shortly after 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 14. Special Election results The three-year Replacement Educational Programs

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