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we reported earlier this week that the program will not move forward after a two-year controversy that has pit members of a citizen’s advisory committee against each other, as well as the school district. The school board’s decision means the district’s Human Growth and Development committee will review timelines over the summer and into fall, and possibly introduce new materials for review, according to district officials.

The district’s committee recently convened to discuss proposed curriculum. The outcome of the meeting did not result in a recommendation to move the proposed curriculum forward. Instead, district staff has decided to return to Step #1 to identify a new set of proposed materials in alignment with the approval process, an administration official wrote recently to district parents.
Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho recommends that SPS use an evidence-based program for the 6th-9th grade with adherence to its original design and evaluation, and use supplemental materials to cover the standards not met by the core evidence-based program.
Paul Dillon, a spokesman for Spokane Planned Parenthood says, “When young people have access to evidence-based and inclusive information in a trauma-informed environment, they make healthy decisions about their lives,”

Spokane Regional Health District released a fact sheet last fall showing that students attending Spokane Public Schools are in need of effective sexual health education. As we reported last year, according to data from Spokane Regional Health District, in 2016, one in two 12th graders reported having had sexual intercourse. 10% of all 12th graders have had six or more sexual partners. And, teen pregnancy rates for Spokane teens are nearly twice as high as Spokane County and Washington State rates. Spokane’s teen pregnancy rate is much higher in the city of Spokane compared to state pregnancy rates. The Spokane Regional Health District and many community partners have participated in finding solutions to Spokane’s teen pregnancy crisis.

The next meeting of the Human Growth and Development Citizen’s Advisory Committee is scheduled for Tuesday, June 5. The public will be allowed to attend but can offer only written comment.

The Spokane Journal of Business and Gonzaga’s Women Lead program are sponsoring a new event with a focus on opportunities in Spokane’s business community in hopes of to attracting more women to leadership positions.

On Wednesday, June 13, the Women in Leadership event will be held at Gonzaga’s Hemmingson Center from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m., on the Gonzaga campus. The event, which includes breakfast, is open to community members who would like to attend. A discussion facilitated by leading businesswomen and men will focus on what is and isn’t working when it comes to increasing numbers of women in corporate leadership, overcoming and eliminating gender-based obstacles, and shaping healthier business environments.

Paul Read, Journal of Business Publisher, says discussions about women and leadership are important for both communities and individual organizations to have.

“We all know instinctively that having more women in the C-Suite is a good thing. What we haven’t assimilated well are all the reasons why. And if we can do that, we’ll be more motivated to find and remove the hurdles to making that happen,” Read says.

The Journal also will publish a companion publication to the event that will be inserted in the newspaper’s June 21 issue.
For more information, you can call the Journal of business publisher at, 509-456-5257,

In other news

a report just published this month shows that students entering higher education after high school will have larger unmet financial needs attending Washington community colleges than public four-year institutions. Somewhat surprisingly, study data shows the costs of attending college, such as tuition, books, and room and board, which are not met by family contributions or financial aid, are greater for community college students than university students.

Part of an ongoing long-term study by the Washington State Office of Financial Management Education and Research Data Center to explore how current need-based financial aid impacts college completion rates, the report focused on enrollment and completion data on students entering their first year of higher education who utilized financial aid programs and , followed their progress over six years. Public education stakeholders plan to utilize the insights from the study to address financial aid programs and policies.

Even though attendance costs of community college are less than half that of a four-year institution, the greater gap in the financial need for community college students showed that community college students were poorer and received lower levels of family contributions. In addition, financial aid packages available at community colleges and technical schools are smaller overall

Not surprisingly, unmet financial needs affected a student’s chances of completing college. Students with greater unmet needs were less likely to persist and complete school than students with smaller unmet needs.

The study revealed other interesting factors:

There are many more women than men in the study. More women than men pursuing a post-secondary education during the years of the study and more women received need-based financial aid. Women were also more likely to earn a degree.

Students attending community college work more than students attending a four-year institution, but borrow less. Still, 35 percent of students who do earn a degree or certificate incur an average of $9,000 in debt.

In our next story, Increased levels of carbon dioxide, which are driving climate change, will reduce B vitamins in rice, according to a new study. Eric Tegethoff of the Washington News Service has more.

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