Rob McDonald

Most every school official is wondering what will be the impact on levy elections from the first use of all mail-in ballots. It doesn't ease anyone's nerves that the Tacoma School District watched as voters rejected a $300 million levy in February.

Davenport School District has been cleared of any official wrongdoing in a federal racial discrimination complaint filed in the spring. Kitara McClure reported to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights that her 10-year-old son had been called a racial slur five times at Davenport Elementary. She also claimed the Lincoln County school retaliated against her and her son after they began contesting the treatment. The student and his mother are black.

Partly to avoid the fiasco that happened at Spokane Public Schools last fall over providing student information to military recruiters, state lawmakers are considering a measure that would require all districts to establish clearer procedures. In the fall, a new policy by Spokane Public Schools led to confusion and concern. Parents were told that if they didn't want military recruiters to receive their children's names and numbers, the students would also be left off all other listings – such as school honor listings and sports rosters. Eventually, district officials dropped the policy.

A 16-year-old Rogers High School student is in juvenile detention for allegedly making threats to students and staff during an online chat with a friend Monday, during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The student's name has not been released by school, court or police officials.

In 2003, a Lewis and Clark High School production of "The Laramie Project" was stopped by administrators, due to rough language and a shortage of time to prepare students and parents. Well, get ready again.

After three years of planning and designing, three replacement elementary schools are beginning to take shape in Spokane. Driving through town, both north and south, it's hard to miss the growing structures of brick, stone and metal at Lincoln Heights Elementary at East 22nd and Ray, Lidgerwood Elementary at Lidgerwood and East Rowan and Ridgeview Elementary at Maple and Joseph.

A former North Central High School student claims his leg was so badly injured during a 2001 wrestling match that he had to drop out of school, racked up debts and was unable to develop a proper career. Now he's suing. Issac Davis, 21, and his parents, Randall and Theresa Davis, filed a lawsuit in Spokane County Superior Court on Tuesday to recover money for injuries and damages from North Central, the school district and coaches.

Spokane Public Schools' spring levy effort is under way a month sooner than in previous elections to keep pace with those mailing their ballots early. The three-year, $141 million levy, which helps fund teachers and programs, accounts for 15 percent of the district's operating budget.

The first major face-lift to Shadle Park High School since it was built in 1954 will be done in one stage as originally planned, thanks to increased state funding, school officials said Tuesday. Tight budgets and rising building costs had administrators struggling to get everything built under the Spokane Public Schools 2003-2009 Capital Projects Bond.

It takes a lot to get the "frontline ladies" riled up, but the Mead secretaries are miffed because they believe that everyone gets cash for new computers, new buses – but they can't get paid for the extra work they've been asked to take on, said the union president. Secretaries in the Mead School District have asked a state mediator to help with negotiations, which have gone for about eight months without reaching a new contract.

Don't ask Spokane school board members what they really think about sex education. They are not ready to talk about it. Two interns, from Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest and Odyssey Youth Center, crafted a list of questions with the help of a Planned Parenthood staffer and sent it this week to Spokane Public Schools board members. The plan was to follow up with phone calls and interviews if the surveys were not completed and returned by Monday.

The education statistics on American Indian students break her heart. Jenny Egly, a Nez Perce Indian and grade school teacher at Garfield Elementary, runs a reading program after school as part of Spokane Public Schools Indian Education program.

With titles like "Deadly Desires" and "Sexual Pressure," new sex-education videos students in Spokane Public Schools will be shown beginning next month are a bit different from those their parents watched. In one scene, clothed teenagers are shown suggestively "booty dancing" on the dance floor, while a gyrating woman performing in a music video sings "Give it to me baby" in another. The scenes are intended to build credibility by recognizing that for years, teens have been force-fed daily doses of sex-heavy images they may feel pressured to emulate.

A Washington state history textbook with a page devoted to Spokane's embattled mayor could be in Spokane middle school classrooms next year. Spokane Public Schools will go ahead and purchase a state history book with a page devoted to Mayor Jim West if the school board accepts Tuesday's recommendation by the Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

Summer school looms on the horizon for high school sophomores who don't pass all sections of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning in the spring. The math section will likely be the biggest hurdle for the class of 2008, which must pass the high-stakes test to graduate. Students will receive several chances to pass, the first coming in August.

The alleged hate crime attack on a Lewis and Clark High School student came after his attacker said, "I want to beat up one of these white boys," according to the affidavit of probable cause filed by Spokane police. Tyson Leroy Brown, 21, of Spokane was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of malicious harassment, a Class C felony hate crime. Brown also had an unrelated warrant from Oregon, according to a Spokane police news release.