Featuring works from faculty artisans at Western Carolina University, the 2025 School of Art & Design Faculty Biennial Exhibition will be displayed through May 2 in the Bardo Arts Center in Cullowhee. 

As a young child, growing up right outside of London, Dan Tapster fondly remembers watching David Attenborough’s nature documentaries with his mother, these family moments that were “a cherished ritual.”
“She proudly claims to be his number one fan,” Tapster said. “And those early experiences ignited my fascination with storytelling and the natural world.” 

Haywood County Schools is working with a tight budget for the coming year. 

After making cuts where possible over the last few years, Superintendent Trevor Putnam told county commissioners last week that the school system was as lean as it could be and would dip into its fund balance for the second year in a row in order to balance the budget for the 2025-26 school year. 

Haywood Community College is asking Haywood County commissioners for a modest increase in its operating budget for fiscal year 2025–26, citing inflationary pressures, employee retention initiatives, rising costs across multiple service categories and a surprising surge in enrollment. 

The Haywood County Farm Bureau Board of Directors is proud to announce the sponsorship of Central Haywood High School’s new tractor. This tractor will be used by Kevin Bailey, Ed.D., Central Haywood High’s agriculture teacher, to improve student understanding of agricultural equipment and give them real-world education and experiences directly related to the agricultural industry. 

It’s been a few weeks since I wrote a column for this space. Instead, we’ve been fortunate enough to print your opinions. 

I take it as a sign of a newspaper’s health relative to its relationship with readers when we have a lot of letters to the editor or guest columns coming to my inbox.

The Jackson County Commission invited Library Director Tracy Fitzmaurice to come before the board and give a report on the state of libraries in the county after concerns were raised over library security last month. 

In the early 1900s, in Tsarist Russia, young intellectuals with means would study philosophy and history. Some would feel a longing for their country to become more modern, to become a nation under the rule of law, as other nations in the world had done. 

Featuring works from faculty artisans at Western Carolina University, the 2025 School of Art & Design Faculty Biennial Exhibition will be displayed Jan. 21 through May 2 in the Bardo Arts Center in Cullowhee. 

Growing up as an educator’s daughter, I spent afternoons running the halls of my mom’s school with the other teachers’ kids, waiting on our parents to finish grading papers, attend faculty meetings or otherwise close out their duties. My mom was a public school librarian.