Flag Salute & Invocation by Harold Scott
 
Visiting Rotarians: Sharon and Patricia (Whatcom North)
 
Guests: Johnny Dye (Curtis’s son and upcoming trip participant), Carlie Gillespie (Archer Halliday) 
 
Reminder:  Tonight is “Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles” show at MBT at 7:30pm (5:15pm dinner gathering at Bellwether Restaurant - thank you, Jim Haupt!).
 
Short Program
Bill Gorman introduced Johnny Dye, son of Curtis, and participant in this year's Youth Engaged in Service (YES) program. This year’s group will go to Honduras in April to  build a classroom at a school.  Raffle tickets were sold as a fundraiser for the trip.
 
Business Minute
This week, Terry Brown talked about his architecture firm.
 
Bucks in the Bay
  • Stan gifted a check  to the BBRC Foundation;
  • Brad Cornwell for the birthday of his grandmother (she would be 93 if she were still alive)
  • Phil “X-employed” Hageman went to the movies (Padington) with grandsons;
  • Mark Turner spent 9+ hours on I-5 last Tuesday driving to/from Portland to give a slideshow and talk;
  • Debbie Kiene also went to see the movie Paddington;
Sergeant at Arms by Glen Gronig
Fines for Seahawks.
 
Long Program 
Dannon introduced Greg Baker, Superintendent for the Bellingham Public Schools.
Greg talked about early childhood education, and “The Bellingham Public Schools Promise”:
  • Vision / Mission
  • Core Beliefs 
  • Outcomes
  • Key strategies
Early childhood education starts from birth through grade 3.
The “rate of return” for early childhood programs is very high.  A recent change in our district was to go to a full-day kindergarten, 5-days a week.  That puts better prepared kids into the first grade.  
Greg also told the story of how the district creatively found a way to open a full-day, pre-K class every spring for over 60 kids who can’t access other pre-K opportunities (this program is called early-entrance, “Promise K” classes).
 
Respectfully submitted, 
Stowe Talbot