June 2008

Meet Diane Lange Jones

She is some kind of saint to thousands of parents and kids. A Burien-area musician, Diane teaches violin, cello and viola and has for over 30 years. She currently teaches 80 private lessons in her home studio every week.

Self-taught from age 8, Diane once played professionally with the Rainier Symphony Orchestra.

In 2002, she formed the Normandy Park Youth Orchestra, a string program that supports three youth orchestras of elementary through college age students.

The other day, my seven year-old son asked me what I did for a living.

When you are seven, there are livings that are easy to understand, of course. Teacher? Easy. Firefighter? Cool. Dentist, doctor, store-owner. All graspable.

Try explaining to a 1st grader that you do public relations.

This challenge has been bouncing around my mind as I read the flap over Scott McClellan's book. The former White House spin doctor now admits he lied on the job.

I am writing on to say that I am disappointed that our Highline School District is going to cut several wonderful school counselors because of "budget cuts".

Our school counselors are the "HEARTS AND SOULS" of our schools. The students, teachers, and parents desperately need them.

In the past two years, one of my students has lost a father. Last year, James Peckenpaugh died of cancer.... leaving behind 3 children. One of his children was in my class.

The $3.5 million Highline School funding shortfall does not make sense. Did the Legislature or Governor shortchange Highline? What is the School Board doing wrong?

Bellevue has four high schools in the top 100 high schools in the nation. By contrast, Highline has a 30% drop out rate.

The Legislature changed the law and now only 50% plus one is required to pass school levies. Renton's school levy passed with a landslide 59% last week.

The progress of the new Burien Town Square is coming along nicely and will be a welcomed improvement to the overall ambiance of Burien.

It will provide a wonderful selection of residences and commercial possibilities to our area.

There is one problem that I see looming in the near future, given the fact that parking for this area will be at a premium, is the plan to relocate the Burien library to the southeast corner of the town square.

For the past 8 months or so there has been revision activity regarding the Tree Retention ordinance in the city of SeaTac. The current ordinance is 15.14.160-- Retention of Significant Trees.

I have attended most City Council meetings where presentations have taken place and also a couple of Planning Commission meetings, all regarding the new tree retention policy. There were only 2 or 3 other citizens at these Planning meetings, and the same at the Council meetings.

working to turn around

Highline's Step 5 school

By Donna Stefanik

Chinook Middle School in SeaTac may be a Step 5 school in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) formula-but it won't stay there for long if first-year principal Evie Livingston has anything to say about it.

"All of the kids are very intelligent, and it's my job to make sure they know that," she said. "Every child, no matter where they come from, has something important to give this world.

Four "Level Three" sex offenders recently moved into a house in the 1400 block of Kent-Des Moines Road. Level three indicates high risk to re-offend.

The Des Moines Police Department put out bulletins about each of the four men and held a community meeting on May 21. About 90 people attended.

"Most people had questions about the laws relating to sex offenders and what our limitations were with working with them and restricting where they can live and what our process is," said Des Moines Police Sgt.

The city of Burien is in good financial condition, finance director Scott Hardin told Burien city council members on June 2.

While the city's reserve funds are healthy, the growth in expenses is gradually outstripping expected revenues, according to Hardin. He said restrictions on property tax growth are partly to blame for the disparity.

The city sets aside about 10 percent for reserves.

The Highline Schools Foundation for Excellence recently honored five outstanding individuals in education at its eighth annual Gold Star Awards fundraising luncheon at the Doubletree Guest Suites in Southcenter.

Scott McComb from Aviation High School received the honor as the Outstanding Teacher of the Year, Diana Garcia, principal at Bow Lake Elementary School received the Administrator of the Year award, Mike Castro, security officer at Chinook Middle School, was named Outstanding Classified Employee of the Year and Alice McGregor from Bow Lake Elementary took the award of Outstan