March 2007

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, bottom row, third from left, with Pastor Erik Wilson Weiberg of the Ballard First Lutheran Church, on her left, at the Senate rostrum with others following the approval of a Senate resolution honoring the state's fishing fleet and the annual blessing last week of the fleet ceremony. Washington State Senate photo.

Danny Smith, a resident at the Columbia Lutheran Home takes the first ride on a wheelchair lift of a Sprinter Van. The van can hold four wheelchairs and was a gift from the Trust of Leah and Kenneth Santrom. It will be used to take residents to doctor's appointments and errands. Dean Wong photo.

Going to state!

It's been awhile for Foster, as this Tukwila school's sixth-year coach, Eric Fletcher, can attest to never having been to the big Tacoma Dome tournament that starts today.

But that's changed now, thanks to a Bulldogs' solid start and finish that took care of a so-so middle to propel these ladies onward in a loser-out game win against Steilacoom, 62-57, at Curtis High School Thursday.

"First time to state as a coach," said Fletcher, smiling after the narrow win and whose girls jumped out to a fast and furious 24-11 lead after the first quarter an

As a resident of White Center, it is so exciting to see the improvements we have made in our schools over the recent years. For so long, we could not pass a bond or levy. But now, we have several new schools and so much community support for this levy.

Ask the children what they think of their new schools. They will tell you that they love them. And so will their parents and teachers.

On March 13, we are being asked to continue our school levy funding. Voting yes to continue this levy is a good decision.

I am a third grade student at North Hill Elementary. I just want to tell you that we need to vote for the levy because it helps pay for music. Music is soooooo good! We have so much fun in music, I can't describe it. Our teacher is super-nice and we are so in love with the music program. I can't imagine life without music, I'd be really bummed out let me tell you.

It also pays for some of the teachers and Camp Waskowitz.

As Ralph Nichols wrote in his column on Feb. 28, "We need good public schools. We need to pay for them." Mr. Nichols also mentioned the need to fix problems to make the system work.

The good news is, we don't have to wait on solutions from Olympia, or Washington, D.C., to make things better, we can do so at a much more local level.

Locally, the Highline School District has been working on a number of innovative approaches to making our schools work better.

Also, there are many opportunities for citizens and parents to get involved.

In Ralph Nichol's commentary, "Picking taxpayers' pockets is not way to fix education," he references a recent Washington Education Association report in which Washington is 42nd nationally in per student funding. The WEA has proposed a plan that would raise our state spending level to seventh.

Mr. Nichols writes that additional funding is not the answer, but the problem should be fixed instead.