Stephen Kloosterman

So anyway, I had the perfect date all planned. And it went just about perfect, too, all except for a rainstorm. We sought refuge in the Alpenrose coffeeshop and then they were going to close so I had to go out get the car...

Yesterday marks the first day in three years of covering area schools that I or the Sentinel have received a handy little PRESS RELEASE from a group of kids about a PRANK they’ve pulled. oh man… I wasn’t going to publish it, because I was worried it would send the wrong message...

Random thing: I was waiting for something else while at the RCA synod when the guy from denomination’s health insurance provider took the podium...

This past week I covered the Reformed Church in America Synod which was going on here in Holland at the DeVos field house. The biggest issue at synod was the Belhar confession, which delegates voted to make one of the denomination’s doctrinal standards...

Got a response from a reader earlier this week in regards to my earlier post. The woman said her son, who attends West Ottawa High School, was beat up and later threatened by kids she thinks belong to a gang. I recently read a column you wrote about the gang activity in Holland. Here’s my story...

Amazing graduation story this year about Hamilton student Patrick Kolean, who survived a heart transplant to graduate on time. I wrote up a short version earlier, but here’s the way Patrick’s own mom put it to me in a letter:   Dear Stephen, My 18 yr...

Here’s what is and isn’t happening. West Ottawa IS looking to cut $2-2.5 million out of next year’s budget, and that number will include some staff being laid off. Holland HAS given 28 to 30 teachers no teaching assignments for the coming year...

Stay tuned for election results later tonight! I’ll be posting them here, too, even though I’m sure they’ll be elsewhere on the Web site...

Holy cow, what a surprise play - I’ve never heard of this happening before - a school district failing to get its operating millage approved. That’s the case in Saugatuck… Here’s the other results I promised...

Check out our new Tulip Time blog here. I’ll be posting, along with the other folks here in the newsroo

We here in the newsroom keep calling around to get latest news on possible cases of the Swine Flu. So far, there’s only been one confirmed case in the state, although there were possible cases in both Ottawa and Allegan counties. The Allegan case has come back as negative...

Police and youth workers met last week at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Holland to discuss what to do about gangs in Holland. I’ve heard people in Holland dismiss gang activity before...

I’ll have a story tomorrow about how Hope College officials laid a new time Capsule inside a wall at Graves Hall. The building, which is undergoing a full-scale restoration, is set to be re-dedicated by Hope this fall...

For those of you with penty of time, energy and money, I’ve got a story today about fun stuff for kids to do during Spring Break...

Warning: this is a bit off the topic, since I’m the education reporter. I was helping our photographer look for file art of the old Hart and Cooley building when I came across this op-ed piece from a couple years ago...

I wrote two stories recently about things near and dear to my heart, Science Olympiad and U.S. First Robotics. These are both great, competitive, after-school activities for kids who are good at math and science — or who want to improve...

Holland Public Schools won’t qualify for the “Areas of Promise” program outlined by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in her recent state of the state address...

I know the Robotics teams are going strong, and several teams have their robots ready. Anybody want to send in photos or comments about what they’re developing? Send me whatever you’ve got at stephen.kloosterman@hollandsentinel.com...

A West Ottawa high school student recently interviewed me, via e-mail, about media bias for a class project she was doing. I know there’s a lot of people out there who distrust the media (not just high-schoolers), so I thought I’d try to share the interview on my blog...

I can’t quit reading this story in the Detroit News. As a west Michigan guy, I hate Detroit. I’m not a cops reporter, and usually I don’t go for stories where the reporter interjects his or herself into the story. But this one breaks all precedent. Give it a read...

This may surprise a few, but I don’t emit an evil cackle and sprout scaly wings every time there’s a scandal at a school, or a school closes...

This from the folks at Zeeland Public Schools. I’m assuming the idea behind marshmallows is that they are softer than snowballs and not as wet. Also, it’s been bitterly cold out there...

My boss says I have knack for waiting for really good quotes. (I also have weaknesses — I’m terrible with capitalization, for instance!). I always end up with these great anecdotes and quotes that I can’t fit in the stories I write for the newspaper...

Blogging isn’t something I get around to regularly — It’s near the bottom of my to-do list. Here’s something I’ve been sitting on for a while about a Christian school in the southwest...

At a Holland Public Schools board meeting Monday night, Dec. 15, officer Andrea Pinner and Holland Police Chief John Kruithoff described how they had worked with school officials in leading a school lock-down earlier this year. A fugitive gunman was suspected to be near East K-8 school...

For the record … for all my “friends” on the Internet who chewed me out when we ran the teacher slapping story the first time … in case you missed our story when it ran last week … We did get the stuff we requested under the freedom of information act, and it confirmed what we had...

I had to do a story today about a student, Sabrina Ortega, who had died at the age of 10 from Luekemia, a form of cancer that affects your blood. These are never easy stories to do...

I got another letter from Hope college student Katelyn Hemmeke today about how the Hope College campus is doing, now that the norovirus mess is mostly over: The mood on campus is pretty much back to normal...

I wrote a story on Saturday about my lack of success deer hunting, and a reader, Deb Kamp, wrote in to console me by sharing how her husband recently had some success deer hunting: I just wanted to write to you and show you the amazing buck my husband shot on Saturday right in West Olive...