Elementary school in Grand Haven to become early learning center
Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, Mary A. White Elementary will become an early learning center with a special focus on nature-based programs, Grand Haven Area Public Schools announced Thursday. The center is expected to house the district's Preschool Development, Great Start Readiness, Young Fives and Early Childhood Special Education programs.
The change is part of a building transition plan 'aimed at enhancing early childhood education while optimizing district facilities to meet the evolving needs of the Grand Haven community,' GHAPS said. Over the next five years, the district is anticipating an enrollment decline of about 650 students.
Meanwhile, the students who attend Mary A. White Elementary will instead be sent to different elementary schools in the district. Those who live west of Beacon Boulevard will attend Rosy Mound Elementary; those who live on the north side of River Haven will attend Peach Plains Elementary; and those who live on the south side of River Haven will attend Robinson Elementary.
'While we recognize that transitions like this can be difficult for our families, this decision reflects our commitment to providing the best possible learning experiences for our students,' said Superintendent Kristin Perkowski in a statement. 'By enhancing our early childhood programs and optimizing our facilities, we are positioning our district for future success, ensuring that we can continue to offer a high-quality education for generations to come.'
GHAPS will hold an information session for parents at 6 p.m. Monday in the Mary A. White Elementary gym.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Los Angeles Times
25-07-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Huntington Beach nonprofit Robyne's Nest, which helps at-risk teenagers, readies for new chapter
The late Fred Rogers, of 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' television fame, was given some advice by his mother for tough or scary times. 'Look for the helpers,' Rogers once recalled. 'You will always find people who are helping.' Robyne Wood of Huntington Beach is a helper. That will remain true regardless of Wood's status at Robyne's Nest, the nonprofit she started in 2015 to help at-risk and homeless high school students who are drug- and alcohol-free. But after a decade in charge, she's stepping away. Wood announced last month that she will be resigning as Robyne's Nest executive director in January. She said she feels the timing is right for her. Her husband, Kirby, turns 65 next year and will also be retiring. Her daughter Savana is getting married next year, while her son Parker just graduated from high school. So Wood is stepping away for a new chapter and some well deserved time off. 'I never saw myself being here more than 10 years, I don't know why.' she said. 'Robyne's Nest is doing really well financially. In our schools and in our programs, it's really sound. What better time to hand something off to somebody else to continue it than when it's doing great?' It can be considered a full-circle moment, as Robyne's Nest was born out of Wood's volunteer help when Savana was a student at Dwyer Middle School. Morgan Smith, the director of certified human resources for the Huntington Beach Union High School District, was principal at Dwyer back then. 'In an area of Huntington Beach where there's so much affluence, there's also extreme poverty,' Smith said. 'A lot of families were stacked in apartments three or four families deep. We had kids that went to Dwyer that were sleeping in vans at night. There wasn't a system in place for schools to really have the kind of consistent outreach.' Wood created a food pantry, but as the need became greater, more resources were needed. Smith suggested that she start a nonprofit, so she dove in. 'I had heard about a student who got kicked out of his house when he turned 18, and I was beside myself,' she said. 'There were a couple of other nonprofits that supported that age group, 18-24, but most of them, their idea was to put him in a sober living home, give him a motel voucher for a couple of days, an EBT card and a minimum wage job. I was just like, 'What kind of start in life is that?' It wasn't good enough for me.' Robyne's Nest has worked over the years with the Huntington Beach Union High School District and Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Newport-Mesa trustee Carol Crane has seen Wood become a familiar face at Back Bay High, an alternative school. 'She doesn't do it to be seen, she does it because she wants to,' Crane said. 'It's more to be there and support. Some people do things for their different purposes. For her, it's just very real.' Robyne's Nest held a 10-year anniversary celebration in April. The office on Talbert Avenue, which Robyne's Nest moved into in 2018, has expanded over the years. In the back is a food pantry, and upstairs is space for an in-house mental health and wellness program, as well as a therapy room. Next door is a thrift shop opened in 2022 that's open to the public and helps support the cause. Another key step was opening Robyne's Landing, a shared transitional living house in Huntington Beach for abandoned and severely neglected students. Wood said she lived there herself for three months after a house manager had a family emergency, which should surprise no one who knows her well. 'She is a dynamo,' said Tom Williamson, a past president of the Robyne's Nest Board of Trustees who owns Marina Auto Body. 'I've never met anybody like Robyne. I know that probably sounds like it's buttered up, but let me tell you. If you spend some time with her, 'no' is not in her vocabulary, she gets it done. I wish I had a whole bunch of employees like her. I've got a few, but my God.' Linda Temple, who just retired as a psychologist at Edison High School, said that she started working with Wood when she was providing snacks for high school students. Now Wood has a team of about 50 core volunteers, plus many more who help at the holiday season. 'It's such a transitional time, and it's so critical for students to have support and know they're not alone,' Temple said. 'Even on a good day, they're struggling. You have so many who have issues with parents at home, or they live with grandparents. The mental health issue is huge.' Wood said she herself would have been a Robyne's Nest kid. Growing up on the East Coast, she left home when she was 17 and moved to Maryland. 'I finished my senior year on my own, I worked, I rode the bus,' she said. 'I learned a lot of lessons. I know what these kids go through and try to share that with them.' Wood and her family moved to Huntington Beach in 2008. She has two noticeable tattoos on her left wrist. One is a cross and the other is her favorite Bible passage, Jeremiah 29:11. 'Everything I've done has come so easily,' she said. 'I put something out that I need this, I need that, and it comes. Good karma in the world, God's will, whatever you want to call it. But I think too, people just have trust in us. We're here, we're helping take care of the kids, we're pretty transparent about everything. We're not trying to Band-Aid everything, we're really trying to make lives better with all of the tools that we have.' The person who takes over as executive director at Robyne's Nest will undoubtedly have big shoes to fill. Smith, who has also been principal at Fountain Valley and Marina high schools, knows the nonprofit will continue doing important work, providing a support structure for hundreds of teenagers and young adults over the years. 'The place that they're at now, I don't know if she ever dreamed it would be there, but Robyne is just nonstop,' he said. 'You can't tell her no; she will find a way. We are all just in her gravitational field. She's like a shooting star passing through, and we all just kind of slowly get pulled in with her gravity and become part of it. It's exciting, and it's a lot of fun, but she is that center of the universe and it is all-consuming.'
Washington Post
11-07-2025
- Washington Post
The wood around our French doors is rotting. How do we fix it?
Q: When our dog was a puppy, she chewed the wood by the French doors leading to our deck. As time went on, it got progressively worse. Now a piece of the wood has fallen out and the area around it looks rotten. Is this fixable? A: When you're trying to fix rotten wood, wherever it is, there are basically two options: Fill it with epoxy or replace it. Filling with epoxy — a process that also involves treating the remaining wood to prevent future rot and to stiffen soft areas — makes sense if the rot isn't extensive and the wood has an intricate shape or is located where removing and replacing it would be difficult. If you have round porch columns that are rotted at the bottom, for example, patching would be much easier than making a new column and shoring up the porch roof while you swap the old column with the new one. If the bottom of the door itself were rotten, that, too, might be a good candidate for patching with epoxy. In your case, the picture you sent shows damage confined to a short section at the bottom of the door jamb. The door itself and even the trim over the edge of the jamb don't show damage. The jamb, though, has only a little white paint still on it. Enough has peeled off that you can see that it isn't a single piece of wood; instead, it's a piece glued up from short segments that have interlocking, 'finger-jointed' ends. That's pretty clear evidence that the door was sold as a pre-hung unit made by a company that was cutting costs by shipping jambs that were only pre-primed, not painted. White primer paint, when new, looks about the same as white exterior paint. But primer is designed to stick well and make a good surface for paint. It isn't designed to stand up to wet weather over the long term. Even if your puppy hadn't been so intent on gnawing the wood, there's a good chance you'd be seeing rot by now anyway if the jamb wasn't painted. This problem is so common that several companies have come up with kits designed so homeowners with only a few tools can fix the damage. Crescent Door Works sells what it calls the Boss-Rx Door Frame Rot Repair Kit. It's made of PVC, a plastic that doesn't rot and can be painted. KS Hardware makes a similar repair kit, but the parts are pre-primed wood. The two types differ in height (8 inches for the Boss; 12 inches for the KS Hardware), and the shape of the top edge. The Boss accommodates a lap joint with the part of the jamb you are keeping, which helps ensure a watertight installation even if you don't cut as precisely as you should. The KS Hardware design uses a butt joint, which is easier to make. The Boss has a narrow vertical groove for weather-stripping, important if your existing jamb has that; you could fill the groove with caulk if you don't need it. The KS Hardware pieces don't have this feature. Both companies offer kits for jambs 4 9/16 inches wide and 6 9/16 inches wide. Instead of buying a kit, you or someone you hire — maybe a home repair service because it's probably too small a job to interest most contractors — could replicate a replacement piece from wood. Look at the websites for the kits to see what's involved. To install a kit piece or a custom-made patch, you need an oscillating multi-tool, such as the DeWalt cordless MAX XR fitted with a plunge-cutting saw blade, and a two-part paste epoxy, such as JB Weld or PC-7. If you want a lap joint at the top, you also need a sharp chisel. To install a patch, start by removing the door. Tap up on the hinge pins with a nail so you can lift the door out without removing the hardware. It helps to have an assistant. Also take off any weather-stripping on the damaged jamb, and carefully pry off the exterior trim along that edge. To accommodate the lap joint, the Boss instructions say to make a horizontal cut with the oscillating tool 6¾ inches up from the bottom. Cut or remove any nails or screws and wiggle out the damaged piece. Then make another parallel cut 1¼ inch higher — but only ½-inch deep. Make a few parallel cuts ½-inch deep below that to make it easier to chisel out enough wood to create a recess ½-inch deep. The patch should fit right in, but you can fine-tune the fit, if needed, by using the chisel to pare back excess wood on the jamb. If you're using a patch that has a butt joint on top, just draw a line at the appropriate height and cut across it with the oscillating tool. Spread painter's tape along the top outside edge of both the jamb and the replacement piece, to prevent smearing epoxy over the face of the jamb. Mix and apply the two-part paste epoxy. Add a screw or two if the fit isn't snug enough to keep the patch in place on its own. Let the epoxy set as long as the manufacturer recommends. Sand the jamb above the patch to remove all of the loose paint and gray wood fibers. Apply primer, then paint. If cutting out the bottom of the jamb sounds too scary, or complicated, the other way to repair the damage is by hardening the soft wood and preventing additional damage with a consolidant, and filling the missing space with epoxy. Get a product such as Abatron's Wood Restoration Kit, which contains parts A and B of LiquidWood, the consolidant, and parts A and B of WoodEpox, the patch material. Read the full instructions on the label or the technical data sheet (you can find this online). The materials need to be applied to clean, dry wood. As you prepare the damaged area for the repair, also prep for eventually painting the whole jamb. Sand off flaking primer and most of the gray, weathered wood on areas that are otherwise sound, and wash the jamb with water to clean out any grit or bits of moss or lichen. When the wood has dried, mix the two parts of consolidant and brush it on to the damaged area. Repeat until the wood is saturated. While the consolidant is still tacky, mix the two parts of patch material. Apply it with a putty knife or a gloved hand, and smooth the surface as best you can. Once it dries, usually in an hour or two, sand the surface smooth. Apply primer and then paint to the whole jamb, including the patch. Have a problem in your home? Send questions to localliving@ Put 'How To' in the subject line, tell us where you live and try to include a photo.
Newsweek
08-07-2025
- Newsweek
Millennial Mom Skips Boomer Plate Rule—Her Twist Has Parents in Stitches
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A New Jersey mom has left parents in stitches after realizing why she eats her kids' leftovers. Daniela Wood (@danielawould) posted a reel on Instagram about to put their half-eaten meals in the trash but then stops to consider her next move. The text overlay reads: "When you're a millennial parent so you don't make your kids finish their food because of how you were raised so now you finish their leftovers because of how you were raised." Millennial mom pausing before putting kids' leftovers into garbage. Millennial mom pausing before putting kids' leftovers into garbage. @danielawould Wood, 34, had a lightbulb moment while she was cleaning up dinner one day. "I just realized that often I'll eat my kid's leftovers and one day I stopped and wondered, what's that all about? I thought maybe it had something to do with being raised in the 'finish your plate' generation," the mom of two told Newsweek. When Wood was growing up, family dinners were a big deal in her house. "We ate together at the table every night that we could with the exception of sports and parents getting home from work late," she said. Although she was never forced to finish her plate, it was encouraged. "We were reminded of how strict their parents were around mealtime manners and etiquette including finishing everything that was on your plate," Wood said. That generational echo seems to have lingered in her subconscious—and she'll often have an internal battle with herself when her kids leave food. Wood told Newsweek: "It goes something like this: 'Ugh, why don't they eat the food I make them?! I don't want to throw this out. It's okay, they're supposed to listen to their bodies. Ugh! But I know they'll be hungry and ask for a snack in 10 minutes. "Why do I waste my time on making nice meals, are they getting enough nutrition? Do other kids eat like this? It's normal. I know lots of kids are picky and end up fine. Wasting food is bad. OK, fine, I'll just finish it.'" When it comes to her own parenting style, Wood explained that her experience of eating disorders informs how she raises her children now. "I have a master's degree in clinical mental health counseling and also suffered from an ED for 10 years," she said. "This has shaped the way I speak about bodies and food with my kids." Unlike the subtle shame or pressure some previous generations felt around eating, Wood is deliberate about why she doesn't label food as bad, junk or fattening. "I don't make negative comments about bodies," she said. "I also try to let my kids follow their hunger cues, but it is REALLY hard." Wood's reel has clocked up over 834,000 views and many other users seemed to find the funny side. "Me everyday!" one user wrote. Meanwhile, another added: "This is what I call 'scrappetizers.'" "It's always interesting to see how people interpret these kinds of videos or what memories it triggers for them," Wood said. "I definitely find myself encouraging my kids to have three or so more bites before they can go play. I am sure that is not the best way, but I'm doing my best."
