WSD Weekly

April 3, 2026

📅 Upcoming Calendar Events:

April 6-10 - Spring Break (No School)
May 1 - Non-Contract Day (No School)
View the student academic calendar

Chelan County Fire District 8 in Entiat recently surplused a 1982 Cyclone fire truck — a fully functional first-out vehicle the department had just replaced — and sold it at a low cost to Wenatchee Valley Technical Skills Center's Fire Science program. For WVTSC students, the truck means something immediate and tangible: hands-on training with the same industry-standard equipment they'll encounter on their first day on the job.

Fire Chief Adam Jones showed up in person when the truck arrived — walking students through the rig with the kind of expertise that only comes from years of operational experience. For Jones, the moment carried extra meaning. His son Gunner is a Fire Science student at WVTSC — making this handoff personal in the best possible way.

Jones spoke to the strength of the program and the importance of the partnership between Chelan County Fire and the next generation of first responders coming up behind them. It's exactly the kind of community collaboration that makes career-connected education in Wenatchee work.

The timing couldn't be better. WVTSC recently received a $14 million state grant for facility modernization — with upgraded Fire Science spaces among the planned improvements. The 1982 Cyclone will soon have a purpose-built home to match. I Learn more about the WVTech Fire Science Program on their website.

Kamila Arredondo had no idea what was coming on last Friday morning.

The Washington Elementary 4th grader — daughter of Hugo Arredondo and Zuly Arredondo-Hernandez — was surprised during a school assembly by Apple Blossom Princess Kaylee Pearsons and Youth Parade Chair Shayne Rennie with some very exciting news: her original artwork had been selected as the winner of the 2026 Apple Blossom Festival Youth Parade Logo Contest.

Kamila's winning design, inspired by this year's festival theme "Everything's Coming Up Blossoms," will be featured on official Youth Parade volunteer T-shirts worn by more than 100 volunteers during this year's parade. She received her T-shirt at the assembly and will be honored in person at the 2026 TekniPlex Youth Parade. She will also receive a $100 cash prize courtesy of Cashmere Valley Bank.

The contest — launched in 2023 by Youth Parade Chair Shayne Rennie — invites K–8 students from the Wenatchee and Eastmont School Districts to submit original artwork inspired by the Apple Blossom Festival each year. I More information on the 2026 Apple Blossom Festival is available on their website.

In their very first season, Golden Apple Indoor Percussion made an immediate statement.

At the PPA State Championships held in Wenatchee on Saturday, GAIP delivered their highest score of the season and earned 2nd place in the state. Over four competitions across Washington, the ensemble never finished lower than second — improving their score at every single event.

That kind of consistency in a debut season reflects the dedication, discipline, and character this group brought to every performance. Staff members Jim Kovach, Blake Morrell, Talena Morrell, and Lisa Zanol expressed pride not just in the results, but in the teamwork and school pride these students demonstrated all season long.

The work of envisioning a future Wenatchee High School is moving quickly — and the community voices shaping that work are fully engaged.

Earlier this week, a group of Design Advisory Committee members traveled to Western Washington to tour four recently built high schools — Tyee, Rainier Beach, Sammamish, and Evergreen — seeing firsthand what modern learning spaces look, feel, and function like before bringing those insights back to Wenatchee. What works. What doesn't. What Wenatchee can learn from — and what makes our community unique. View the school visit photo album to see what modern schools look like.

Then the full committee gathered for their second meeting, working through prioritization exercises to identify what spaces and characteristics matter most in a future WHS and wrestling with one central question: what is the heart of this school?

These are the same exercises the Integrus Architecture team conducted with WHS student design advisory and district leadership — deliberately designed to surface the common themes that emerge when Wenatchee speaks with one voice about what it values. The goal is a design that doesn't just function well — but feels unmistakably like Wenatchee.

Looking Ahead

This community engagement and design work is building toward an important milestone. Wenatchee School District is planning for a November 2026 bond measure that would fund the replacement of Wenatchee High School and HVAC improvements at seven additional district facilities. The design process underway — informed by students, staff, community members, and the broader public — will shape what voters are asked to consider this fall.

There's no better way to start a new season than by honoring the ones who came before.

Wenatchee High School Boys Soccer kicked off the 2026 season in mid-March in style — welcoming back Panther alumni for a special match against the current Varsity squad. On one side, today's Panthers. On the other, alumni spanning an impressive 27 years of Panther soccer — representing graduating classes from 1998 all the way through 2025.

Leading both sides of the field was the man who knows this program better than anyone — longtime Panther coach Dennis Tronson, whose presence on the sideline connected generations of players who learned the game, and the values behind it, under his guidance.

Whether you were lacing up cleats for the first time in years or suiting up for your first varsity season, one thing was clear: once a Panther, always a Panther.