
A Yavapai County Superior Court jury recently awarded a $3 million verdict to a 45-year-old Prescott man who suffered complications from a 2019 spinal surgery he blames on the then-Yavapai Regional Medical Center leadership’s improper credentialing and granting of privileges to his neurosurgeon.

In the nonprofit, veteran-focused agency’s spirit of growing their own leaders, U.S. VETS Prescott’s new agency leader most recently served as the agency’s program manager promoted to succeed his former boss Carole Benedict who championed his selection as part of her role with the agency’s national administrative team.

The Chino Valley Unified School District Governing Board has decided to seek its next superintendent from within the district’s existing leadership team.

Amid area holiday festivities, a number of local residents have taken to social media to post concerns about the less vulnerable in the greater Prescott area, particularly those they have seen sleeping in business vestibules or living out of cars parked in shopping centers or closed restaurants.

In the month when the nation celebrates Veterans Day and Thanksgiving, a 90-year-old retired career United States Navy chief electrician is thankful for the chance he was given to serve his country in both the Korean and Vietnam wars...

The Prescott Unified School District leaders sent out a survey this past week to gauge whether or not families and community members might be willing to approve a bond request to cover the multi-million dollar expense of replacing aging heating and air conditioning units on the district’s seven campuses.

Area Lions Clubs of Yavapai County were able to replace a 27-year-old mobile eye clinic thanks to a donation of a 10-year-old travel vehicle from Dignity Health Yavapai Regional Medical Center that through the hospital foundation just purchased a new 38-foot mobile clinic for its Partners for Healthy Students program.

Yavapai Territorial Gospel Rescue mission founders Dave and Yvonne Barreras know a lot about divine serendipity; the re-homing of their two beloved tortoises in Tucson and a $250,000 donation paved their way to launch a transitional housing ministry for women and children in Prescott a decade ago.

Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church in Prescott is embracing the Christmas season spirit of spreading love and cheer to hundreds of those in the greater Prescott area who require it most amid holiday festivities they may be unable to partake in this year.

A healthy man walking up a flight of stairs suddenly stumbles, the left side of his body so weak he can barely move.

After a setback following the suspected embezzlement of $111,000 from the non-profit agency that provides housing and shelter to the Prescott area’s homeless and vulnerable populations, the Coalition for Compassion and Justice is resuming construction on its most ambitious affordable housing project.

Humboldt Unified School District Superintendent Christine Griffin is investing her time these days with an educational road show to its various campuses to solicit feedback on a proposed district reconfiguration for the next school year.

An “Aloha” greeting and hug from Darla DeVille is touted by many recipients as a true treat: the long-time Hawaiian resident, educator, nonprofit executive and community ambassador’s enthusiasm is described as an inspiration to all who endeavor to ensure the greater Prescott community lives up to the city’s motto: “Everybody’s Hometown.”

Humboldt Elementary School Principal Melissa Tannehill turned her annual presentation to the Governing Board into something of a stand-up routine, with a couple moments of levity mixed in with personal gratitude for doing what she does and a focus on a team approach to propel students forward.

Standing before a small group of Prescott Regional Airport personnel, city staff members and other pro-inclusivity advocates in the airport lobby Thursday afternoon, Nov. 16, Zach Sweeney and his non-verbal autistic brother, Ben, unveiled a significant first in aviation travel: specialized communication boards designed for non-verbal or language-limited communicators.

The “Perfect Just the Way You Are Tour” sponsored by the local Beyond the Label/FidgetPockets nonprofit group in Prescott scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 16 through Saturday, Nov. 18 was canceled earlier this week.

In an impassioned plea to her Humboldt Unified School District Governing Board colleagues, member Brianne Wolcott on Tuesday night, Nov. 14, urged creation of a parental notification policy for any student wrestling with gender dysphoria, or who informs a faculty or staff member they wish to be identified as something other than the gender they are identified by on their birth certificate.

A familiar face appeared before the Humboldt Unified School District Governing Board Tuesday night, Nov. 14: former Governing Board member Corey Christians speaking as the Yavapai County librarian and director of the Yavapai County Free Library District.

On Monday night, Nov. 13, Chino Valley Unified School District Superintendent John Scholl officially announced to the Governing Board his resignation as of June 30, far from a surprise, but signaling the board’s duty to begin a succession plan for the almost three-decade veteran and eight-year leader.

At its meeting Nov. 14 at 5:30 p.m., the Humboldt Unified School District Governing Board will be asked to consider a plan to hire five assistant principals for all of the existing elementary schools.

On all seven school campuses in the Prescott Unified School District there is at least one student-grown-and-tended garden, enabling kindergartners to high school seniors to appreciate nature, food and sustainability in ways district leaders hope influence their lives long after the school day, or year, is over.

Inside the kitchen of a six-bedroom, four-bathroom Prescott Valley duplex, the founder of House of Hope 316 and three town leaders marveled at a faith-rooted miracle: the purchase of the nonprofit ministry’s first home to benefit homeless seniors, or those at risk of homelessness.

Surrounded by a large crowd of patients, medical practitioners, civic leaders and the Prescott Regulators and Their Shady Ladies, the Arizona Oncology opened its new 25,000 square-foot Cancer Center on Landmark Lane in Prescott on Friday, Oct. 27.

The final piece of new Superintendent Clark Tenney’s employment — an evaluation tool that will be pertinent to his performance pay parameters come spring and into the future — was expected to be concluded at the regular Governing Board meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 7.

A Prescott family passionate about encouraging inclusion for those with diagnosed disabilities, or who are in any way disenfranchised, is delighted to be able to sponsor an Australian model who is the epitome of talent that defies adversity.

Amid a tense, controversial selection and vote on a new Prescott Unified School District K-12 social studies curriculum for this year, district Director of Instructional Support Kelsey Secor proved polite and unflappable.

Prescott Unified School District has some aging 350 heating and air conditioning units in its seven-school district that need to be replaced, but to do so would likely cost around $13 million or more.

A little over four months into Clark Tenney’s office job as superintendent of the Prescott Unified School District, the Governing Board at its 5 p.m. meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 7 will formalize coordinating his annual evaluation with his salary schedule to incorporate the potential for just over an 8% performance bonus.

With a giant whoop of relief, U.S. VETS national executive Carole Benedict and Prescott Mayor Phil Goode hailed the mammoth effort to guarantee water for the proposed 103-unit Fort Whipple affordable housing project to be constructed on leased property at the Prescott VA campus.

A highlight of the Diamond Valley home dedication for Prescott Area Habitat for Humanity’s 98th homeowners on Thursday, Nov. 2, came from the youngest of the four-member family surprised with a backyard pink-and-white play cottage with her name — Maci — spelled out in pink, wooden letters above its front door.

At the Dignity Health Yavapai Regional Medical Center Family Birthing Center on Halloween afternoon this week, a group of women who are part of the St. Luke’s Episcopal “Angel Quilts” program delivered some 30 of their hand-crafted quilts to families of newborns who require extended hospital care or can simply benefit from the comfort of such a gift.

In her tenure as the new Humboldt Unified School District leader since July 1, Superintendent Christine Griffin and her leadership team have been considering a variety of ways to improve student learning that will potentially include district school restructuring for the next school year.

In the third-floor organ loft of the former Masonic Temple on North Cortez Street is a casket, an apropos prop for the born-on Halloween, long-established Prescott commercial photographer Christopher Marchetti who leased the space as his studio some 33 years ago.

Prescott Unified School District Superintendent Clark Tenney isn’t a big believer in the state letter grade system for schools.

Dignity Health Yavapai Regional Medical Center’s 12-year patient blood management program was recognized by Prescott city leaders this week, with an hour-long Doctors & Donuts public seminar on the topic scheduled on Thursday, Nov. 9 at The Center on Rosser, 1280 E. Rosser Street.

In Prescott Unified School District, students typically tend to score above state average in graded subjects, with the exception of middle school math.

Second-graders at Territorial Early Childhood Learning Center in Chino Valley were introduced to a trio of special, four-legged guests on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 26, to reinforce a “Just Say WHOA to Bullying” program.

On what was a plain wall at the Discovery Gardens preschool headquarters at the Washington Traditional School central office across from the playground is now a whimsical and colorful Prescott landscape complete with sunflowers, a hummingbird, a purple butterfly, quail and a yellow Labrador puppy.

From abstract art paintings and landscape photographs to raw-versed poetry, folk ballads, comedy and a William Shakespeare monologue, the inaugural Polara Health “Art With Lived Experience” was a means for their clients to creatively express their journey with mental health disorders and addiction.

Renowned Prescott muralist Juliana Hutchins’ artwork is poignant, the immense, emotionally evocative images she has crafted to commemorate significant community events — the life and sacrifice of the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who answered their last call on June 30, 2013 — inspire tears and memories.
Liberty Traditional School’s faculty and students’ lively spirit was well-represented at the Humboldt Unified School District Governing Board meeting last week.

At a Prescott Unified School District Governing Board retreat on Thursday, Oct. 19, new Superintendent Clark Tenney was praised for his three-month transition into a position that he declares allows him to serve the community he loves with leaders committed to encouraging and enabling all students to excel.

Anne Robinson is a United States Air Force veteran crocheting a drink cup cozie in the Prescott VA’s occupational therapy space that offers an assortment of arts and crafting materials — weaving, pottery, bead art, canvas painting, jigsaw puzzles, leather crafting and wood creations to name a few.

For more than two decades — 22 years to be exact — North Star Youth Partnership has teamed up with various community, state, even federal agencies to create an interactive program for middle school to high school teens related to topics pertinent to choices that can change their lives forever.

The Humboldt Unified School District Governing Board was quite gratified at its regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 17, with the community largesse shared with its students, be it $1,000 worth of donations of clothing and other items to the Family Resource Center, just over $16,000 for a new special-needs adaptive playground at Humboldt Elementary School and more than $27,000 towards the district’s orchestra program.

Yavapai College’s plans to build a $31 million Health Sciences Center in front of its existing Prescott Valley campus just off Glassford Hill Road next to both Humboldt Unified School District’s Glassford Middle and Bradshaw Mountain High School makes sense to local education, business and civic leaders.

U.S. VETS Prescott Executive Director Carole Benedict has showed herself to be something of a Don Quixote character, a woman willing to imagine the seemingly impossible for the sake of homeless veterans.

The Humboldt Unified School District Governing Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17 to discuss its monthly business in the second-floor Vista Training facility located on the district office campus off North Robert Road.

The sun was beaming down on a group of some 45 college and area health care leaders gathered outside the Yavapai College administration offices Monday as they prepared to lift a black cloth-covered placard revealing Yavapai College’s latest breaking news on registration day for spring semester classes.

Marci Golden is an on-the-go Prescott septuagenarian.