Feather in the cap of FVCC
It’s quite an impressive feat when a small community college in Northwest Montana makes a splash in international circles, and that’s just what happened recently when “FVCC went to China.”
Jane Karas, president of Flathead Valley Community College, recently traveled to Beijing as an education expert accompanying U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Karas represented a national association of community colleges at the gathering that discussed partnerships between the United States and China, but she also represented FVCC and our local community. It is hoped that exchange programs will eventually benefit the college.
In any case, it’s a feather in the cap of Karas and FVCC to be represented on a such a high-level stage, particularly since engagement with China is a critical element in world relations. Good job, Jane.
WHAT’S NOT to like about the Kalispell schools tapping into local ranches for their primary source of beef? Better yet, why didn’t anybody think of it before?
School district officials recently announced that the 2,000 hamburgers served weekly in local schools now come from ranches in Flathead and Lake counties, and the move will result in a modest $750 in savings annually, largely because of lower transportation costs.
Buying local will benefit the economy to the tune of $35,000 annually as well, and it seems obvious that having some familiarity with where the beef is coming from is better than purchasing boxes of mystery meat.
Montana cattle eat more grass, and they certainly aren’t raised in sketchy Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.
Kudos to the school lunch officials who had their thinking caps on!
KUDOS ALSO to all the health department workers putting in long hours dealing with and trying to contain the local pertussis outbreak.
It takes a lot of effort to research all the personal contacts related to whooping-cough cases, then notify hundreds of parents, call in prescriptions and on and on.
Add to that the surge of people seeking vaccinations (100 on Wednesday alone) and it means a very busy time in the public health offices.
The whooping-cough situation should serve as a reminder, too, for people to keep current on their immunization booster shots.