In this installment of the D21 Superintendent Update we sit down with Dr. Carolyn Bernal to talk about her listening and leadership strategy as a newcomer to the district, dealing with opposing viewpoints on Covid mandates in schools, the circumstances leading up to the recent firing of an unvaccinated employee.

Sometimes calling a snow day is as easy as looking out the window, but more often than not, it is an avalanche of factors that go into making the official call by 5 a.m.

The Dalles High School was placed into a brief lockdown this morning, Jan. 12, after reports of a threat were made from outside of the school.

School Closures for Thursday, Jan. 6

Join Mt. Adams Institute for a Sense of Place lecture on, Native Bees of the Gorge featuring Frances Fischer on January, 12th, 2022, at 7 p.m.

North Wasco County School District just announced it will be closed Tuesday, January 4th, 2022

Sarah Cook is melding her career of advocacy and her expertise in literature and writing to offer locals a chance to refine their writing - any writing. All people have an ignition switch - a voice inside that is fascinating and interesting. Why not share it? Sarah aims to put a flame to that pilot light to get your prose burning a hot blue flame. And it doesn’t have to hurt.

There is a super cool opportunity being offered by the Columbia Gorge Community College’s Creative Writing Club, for students both past and present, to have writing and visual art published.

Our columnist Ryan Lawrence is on winter break, but he is not letting any moss grow. He took a trip to the Fort Dalles Museum and located a 1904 electric car, fire bells, a place where drinks were traded for antlers and more. Take a ride with Ryan through this fact-pact piece in homage to your hometown.

In one stretch of the Delta surge, Dr. Tom Nichol has treated 17 patients in a row for COVID who were unvaccinated. Some of them died. It “was a really hard thing for me to see people marching on to die from this who would have survived if they’d had a vaccine.”

Students who are exposed to COVID are now being allowed to stay in school through a new program that monitors through testing.

Our Winter Reading program has started, and like the Summer Reading, you’ll sign up through the Beanstack app for all of the activity kits for December and January.

Join Mt. Adams Institute for a Sense of Place lecture on, Debris Flows from Mount Adams and Mount Hood featuring Richard Iverson, on November 10th, 2021, at 7 p.m. (doors at 6:30 p.m.) at Columbia Center for the Arts in downtown Hood River*.

The owl pellet dissection was the kick-off competition for the group this year and drew a room full of interested students.

There was a little devil in the details that recently hit me square in the face as we prepared for a blood drive here at Columbia Gorge Community College. And as President of the Associated Student Body and championing the mission of inclusivity, we needed to respond.

Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette with 38 of its 52 stores currently enrolled in this energy efficiency program has saved more than $373,000 in utility costs since enrolling in 2016. Read more about Energy Trust of Oregon’s Strategic Energy Management program here.

Dufur, OR – Gorge robotics students from The Dalles, Dufur and Hood River competed at the Dufur Hat Tip to Service VEX Robotics Tournament that took place on November 13. They did not disappoint.

Two long-term community partners have once again teamed up with Lyle School to give students and their families a happy holiday.

The first community food assessment in more than a decade found the food system is well connected in the Gorge, with strong organizing work being done in tight-knit communities, especially in rural areas like South Wasco County and Sherman County.