School board OKs design for new middle school
September 29, 2010
It’s so nice that by 2013 they’ll have built it twice.
Twin Falls Middle School in North Bend will provide the footprint for the new Snoqualmie Middle School that will open, voters willing, in September of that year.
While having the same three-forks look of Twin Falls, Snoqualmie Middle will have its own feel, the architects in charge of the design said.
“Twin Falls will be the prototype but it [Snoqualmie] won’t be identical,” said Bill Chaput, principal-in-charge of the Kirkland architectural firm Hutteball & Oremus.
He later added that the Snoqualmie Middle students will feel “like they have their own identity and their own school.”
A different color scheme, a different location for certain rooms, one fewer computer lab than Twin Falls — that room will house video production equipment instead — and more windows for more natural daylight will help differentiate the new school from its prototype.
The total cost of the project is $49 million, Chaput said.
Building ban for Tanner Annex ends
September 29, 2010
The North Bend City Council decided to let a nine-month building moratorium on areas in the city’s eastern end expire after adopting changes to existing ordinances that will more specifically define how the area can grow.
The changes passed at the council’s Sept. 21 meeting restrict warehouses and require any expansion of the area’s truck stop to address the increased impact on North Bend. The restrictions on warehouses are designed to prevent the development of large buildings with few jobs.
“We wanted to bring businesses to town that were also going to bring jobs,” City Administrator Duncan Wilson said.
The city ordinance states that the overlay district is designed to attract a “well-coordinated mix of employment-generating uses, such as office, employment park, research and development, and light manufacturing.” It is also intended to ensure commercial trucks easily move between the highway and the truck stop without affecting nearby residents or Twin Falls Middle School.
Snoqualmie selling four properties to pay down new City Hall’s debt
September 29, 2010
The city of Snoqualmie has “for sale” signs on three downtown buildings — the old City Hall, the former library and the former administration building.
The city is also pursuing a design competition process to sell the King Street parking lot, at the corner of Railroad Avenue Southeast and Southeast King Street. The city is accepting offers on the buildings until Nov. 30.
Money from the sales will be used to help pay off debt from Snoqualmie’s new city hall, which cost more than $6 million.
City officials plan to pay off that debt using a combination of real estate excise tax, reserves and revenue from selling surplus city properties.
Mayor Matt Larson said he wants to minimize how much the city dips into its roughly $3 million of financial reserves, which will be needed to pay for upcoming infrastructure maintenance and repairs.
Design teams are being asked to submit qualifications and statements of design intent for the King Street parcel. The city will then invite three teams to submit design proposals.
The winning proposal will be based on the design’s look, marketability, economic impact on downtown and technical quality, according to Bob Cole, the city’s economic advisor.
The Snoqualmie City Council voted 6-1 at its May 10 meeting to surplus the former library. Councilman Charlie Peterson was the only dissenting vote.
Based on a 2006 assessment, the building’s value was about $305,000, according to City Administrator Bob Larson.
However, the weak economy has sapped the property’s value. A recent appraisal set the value at $250,000.
The city paid $152,500 in 2006 to buy out the King County Library System’s share of the library building, at Southeast River Street and Maple Avenue Southeast. In 2007, the library moved to a new site on Snoqualmie Ridge.
Dan Catchpole: 392-6434, ext. 246, or editor@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.
Church expands to accommodate growing congregation
September 29, 2010
NEW — 6:28 p.m. Sept. 29, 2010
For years, the Episcopal Church has been getting older and smaller. The average member is 62 years old. Membership has steadily declined for decades, from its height in the 1950s and 1960s.
But St. Clare’s Episcopal Church in Snoqualmie, along with an increasing number of parishes scattered across the country, is bucking the trend. In six years, the congregation has nearly doubled. In the past two years, it’s grown by about 25 percent.
The Rev. Patty Baker is all smiles as she surveys the construction site at St. Clare’s Episcopal Church, where she is pastor. Photos by Dan Catchpole
Four years ago, its future was not clear. The church’s pews were sparsely occupied on Sunday mornings and mostly filled with people with gray hair. Many might have expected the parish to fold when its main building had to be bulldozed after being flooded in January 2006.
Instead, the setback gave the congregation new purpose.
“To a person, we would all love to have that building to worship in, but it’s helped the congregation’s relationship with God,” said the Rev. Patty Baker, St. Clare’s vicar since 2004.
Today, St. Clare’s is expanding. It has outgrown the community hall it converted into a sanctuary, Sunday school and offices. It is adding two modular buildings to house offices and the church’s new — and popular — Sunday school program.
Voices split on test scores
September 29, 2010
Fact: “The school district continues to outperform the state in all grades and all areas,” education expert Greg Lobdell said at the Sept. 23 Snoqualmie Valley School Board meeting.
Fact: The test scores at six neighboring school districts beat the Valley’s third-, seventh- and 10th-graders almost every time in math and reading, retorted community leader and former Valley schools’ foundation president Carolyn Simpson.
So, how well is the district really doing at the Measurement of Student Progress and the High School Proficiency Exam? That depends on where you look and whom you ask.
Simpson said she compared three years’ worth of Snoqualmie Valley test scores with those of the Bellevue, Issaquah, Lake Washington, Mercer Island, Riverview and Tahoma school districts.
A look at 2010 data shown by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s website shows Snoqualmie Valley scoring lower in two-thirds of the 36 tests. Each of the six districts listed two test scores — math and reading — for three different grades.
When compared with Riverview, the 2010 numbers put Snoqualmie Valley scoring higher in all six categories — reading and math for third-, seventh- and 10th-grades.
Work almost finished on downtown North Bend street extension
September 29, 2010
Work is almost finished on North Bend’s extension of Downing Avenue North from East Second Street to East North Bend Way.
The street should open by early October, according to Ron Garrow, North Bend’s public works director.
Two houses stood where the new street runs just east of the QFC parking lot. The city purchased both houses. One was demolished and the other was moved to East Fourth Street and Sydney Avenue North.
The road extension project, which cost about $430,000, will improve traffic circulation, Garrow said.
That better movement will also mean fewer cars will drive past nearby North Bend Elementary School.
School district’s head lice policy is more stringent than relaxed
September 29, 2010
It’s bugging everyone.
School districts in northwestern Washington considering scratching their no-nit policies and letting children with lice stay in class have many people running the gamut from upset to just plain grossed out.
A closer look at how schools in the Valley handle cases of pediculosis shows that school district policy is more no-nit than go-nits.
The district allows school administrators the choice of keeping a child out of class until his or her lice problem is resolved.
The policy, adopted in March 2009, states that the student may be excluded if a school nurse determines there’s an infestation.
However, the emphasis is on controlling and preventing lice rather than on immediately excluding a student. Once a student returns, he or she must submit to a mandatory lice check.
A building nurse may still implement a no-nit policy if the lice screening reveals an increase in nits — lice eggs — or lice, or if a student’s hair has remained neglected or if a student is not a first-timer.
Editorial: Times demand more community involvement in budget process
September 29, 2010
King County, North Bend and Snoqualmie are into their public budget processes. Now is a time for public participation. Sit up, take notice and ask questions.
The decisions made over the next few months will influence how your tax dollars are spent in the next year. The decisions made now will determine which departments get money and how much.
There is far less money to go around this year than in previous years. General-fund revenues for King County are expected to be $60 million less than the cost of continuing current services.
To balance the budget, Executive Dow Constantine has proposed a necessarily austere budget that makes deep cuts. They are regrettable, but realistic, given the county’s financial situation.
September 29, 2010
Yet another unproven teaching fad is proposed
Regarding your Sept. 9 article “Teachers get irritated,” it appears local school officials are once again falling for the old canard that newer must mean better. Kickoff speaker Mick Harper blithely opines, “[D]igital media has (sic) changed the wiring in their [kids’] brains.” So apparently teachers here have to retool once again, because only the latest in technological wizardry represents the best way to “engage” kids.
Pardon me, but 37 years in the classroom make me highly dubious of yet another education breakthrough. Funny how TV, once the “future” of education, is now universally decried as an impediment to learning. I guess it takes a retired geezer to recall such inconvenient details.
So now, this Mr. Harper thinks teachers should remodel one more time on his learned say so? First of all, why should school officials buy the opinion of a guy with nary a minute of teaching experience on his résumé? Bet whatever he’s selling offers no money-back guarantee.
What existing curriculum gets replaced? How many hours will teachers waste on training for an unproven program that may or may not be in use next year? Perhaps the district’s commitment to new technology is just another example of “use it or lose it” money from D.C.? Here we go again!
When will school districts finally get it? Genuine student engagement is the direct by-product of teacher expertise and enthusiasm. It’s the personal connection, the rapport between the expert and the understudy that really counts. It’s as old as Socrates, and it doesn’t require nearly as much technology as Mr. Harper and his ilk would have us believe.
Parents and teachers know first hand the difficulty competing with iPods, iPhones, texting and tweeting. Those digital media devices don’t belong in a classroom, but Mr. Harper still wants district teachers on the digital media bandwagon.
I certainly hope our district and resident parents view this latest sales pitch with appropriate skepticism. There are much better ways to spend education dollars during this tight economy. The district could start by asking teachers what they need instead of spotlighting the latest in education gadgetry.
Fred Strine
North Bend
Council should help with memorial funding
Regarding the article your newspaper published this week about the Snoqualmie Valley Veterans Memorial. Since it’s taken two years to collect $15,000, it will probably take another six long years to collect the remaining amount of money needed to complete this special memorial.
Based on the same, I think Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson and the Snoqualmie City Council should step up to the plate right now and fund the rest of the money needed for the memorial’s completion. After all, they recently spent a chunk of change for two generic-looking stone statues on each end of the city’s main business block.
Surely a veterans’ memorial honoring Snoqualmie Valley veterans killed in action serving our country is easier to justify and more significant than these two generic statues, especially when this veterans memorial will sit directly across from the brand new Snoqualmie City Hall.
Jim Curtis
North Bend
David Spring fails to get 5th District Democrats’ endorsement
September 29, 2010
In an election year when both Democrats and Republicans say the stakes are high at the local and national levels, the 5th Legislative District Democrats passed on endorsing David Spring, who is challenging Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City, for the district’s Position 2.
David Spring
Dean Willard
Spring upset well-funded Democrat Dean Willard in the Aug. 17 primary. Anderson won the primary with nearly 58 percent. Spring received 25 percent, and Willard received 17 percent.
Willard, the party favorite, ran on a moderate platform, while Spring pushed a more progressive message focused on increasing money for education. The two also clearly split over the state budget and labor. Willard spoke more about fiscal responsibility, and Spring was more pro-labor.
At the 5th Democrats’ Sept. 23 meeting, only 35 of 73 members voted to endorse Spring. To win an endorsement, a candidate must receive two-thirds support.
