Author: Randi B. Hagi
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Randi B. Hagi, Assistant Editor
Randi's writing and radio reporting has been featured on WMRA News, The Mennonite, Mennonite World Review, and EMU's Crossroads magazine. She also raises muscovy ducks, chickens, and Katahdin sheep. Her roots are in West Virginia, but she can’t seem to let go of Rockingham County. Check out Randi's latest photo work on instagram at @randi_b_hagi_photography.
School board to send more students back to class next month
More elementary and middle school students will be back in city classrooms in a month, after the Harrisonburg School Board voted unanimously in a special meeting Tuesday to approve the next phase of the division’s reopening plan.
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‘Providing support and encouragement.’ How former inmates are paying it forward.
Charles Kelly was arrested for the last time in August 2001. He’d been incarcerated for a few different stints over the years because of his cocaine and heroin addictions. This time, he had a two-year sentence to serve – the final six months of which he spent at Gemeinschaft Home in Harrisonburg, a therapeutic residential program for those under court supervision or leaving incarceration.
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Harrisonburg prepares for students’ return and potential restart of the new high school
When school bells ring Monday morning, they’ll signal the beginning of in-person classes for the most students inside Harrisonburg school buildings since the pandemic began.
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Area network of mental health help for inmates is stretched thin
Every morning, Jennie Amison gets buzzed through the gate at work and walks down the red-tiled staircase and past the payphone to get to her office. At 9 a.m., her group session begins, and she leads 11 men through cognitive behavioral therapy exercises to get at the root of their drug use.
Council seeks to clean up recycling ordinance
The Harrisonburg City Council is updating its ordinance to direct businesses and residents to separate recyclable materials — such as cardboard, cans and certain plastics — from their trash. The city has left open the option of curbside recycling since discontinuing it in 2015 but has no plans to resume that service anytime soon.
More state and federal dollars could mean more Hburg teachers and school counselors
The Harrisonburg City Public Schools district could hire additional teachers, elementary school counselors and a division-wide equity coordinator with an expected increase in state and federal funding for fiscal year 2022, according to Superintendent Michael Richards’ proposed budget he presented Tuesday.
District wants public input on the future of school resource officers
The role of school resource officers in Harrisonburg City Public Schools will soon be up for debate in the public sphere, as a task force the district established to examine its contract with the Harrisonburg Police Department is planning a “listening tour” to gather community input. After providing opportunities for public input, the group will present a recommendation to the school board in May.
Council focuses on disparity in area inmates
Amid discussions of Middle River Regional Jail’s $40 million expansion proposal, Criminal Justice Planner Frank Sottaceti outlined to the city council on Tuesday how Harrisonburg’s share of inmates at the facility is less than half of Rockingham County’s.
