January 2010

Seattle Public Schools has released a schedule of open houses at every school in the next few weeks, aimed at helping parents learn more about schools in their attendance area as well as option schools open to their students under the school district’s new student assignment plan.

The new student assignment plan and new attendance area boundaries were approved by the School Board in 2009. The new plan will be implemented in phases beginning with the 2010-11 school year. Students currently enrolled may remain at their current school through the highest grade as long as the services the student needs are available at the school.

The Ballard High School boys swim team suffered a 128-55 defeat at the hands of Roosevelt Jan. 7.

Ballard swimmers took four of the meet's 12 events.

Louis Weissman placed first in the diving competition with a score of 130.02.

Alex Guffrey won with 100-meter freestyle with a time of 53.98.

Caleb Jaeger came in first in both the 100-meter fly and the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:01.05 and 1:09.55 respectively.

The Beavers' next meet is at 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 13 at the Ballard Pool against Juanita.

A construction worker from the QFC/Ballard on the Park site on 24th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 58th Street pops into Scooter's Burgers across the street from the development.

"Long time, no see," he jokes as he orders a couple drinks.

It's the same at Java Bean and Aster Coffee Lounge on the other side of 24th Avenue, where construction workers from the QFC/Ballard on the Park site and the Danielle Condos site across from it stop by during breaks.

But, despite the patronage of the workers, businesses near the two sites are excited to see the years-long construction projects come to an end, bringing normalcy to traffic flow and drawing people to the new QFC and the 299 total units contained in the Ballard on the Park Apartments and Danielle Condos.

"It will be nice to have a few fresh faces," said Karen Gray, operations manager at Java Bean. "From a business standpoint, it's always nice to have more people."

Beth Scribner, owner of Aster, said the construction has driven people out of the area for the last two years. She said people will drive six blocks out of their way just to avoid the construction on 24th Avenue.

King County Executive Dow Constantine and Burien Mayor Joan McGilton announced Wednesday an agreement for King County to transfer ownership of Puget Sound Park to the city of Burien.

"We were able to resolve this in a way that sets the right tone for this new era in King County government," said Mayor McGilton. "I thank the County Executive for his leadership to reach a fair agreement on the parks transfer."

Constantine said, "A deal's a deal, and it was the city's understanding of the annexation process that it would receive six parks from the County, including Puget Sound Park.

"After detailed discussions, I agree that transfer of the park to the city is the right thing to do and should occur as part of that larger annexation."

The county wanted to sell a portion of the land for a new library branch.

Voters in the southern portion of North Highline approved their annexation by the city of Burien in August.

City Council action to implement the annexation was held up after the previous County administration entered into negotiations to sell part of the park to a third party.

On Jan.6, President Barack Obama honored SeaTac teacher Michele Brees for excellence in mathematics and science teaching.

Brees of Burien was selected to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching by a panel of distinguished scientists, mathematicians and educators.

This honor is awarded annually to pre-college-level science and math teachers who show innovation and excellence in their methods to prepare students for 21st century careers.

"I would like to extend my congratulations to Michele Brees for being recognized for her dedication to provide students with quality math and science education," said Sen. Patty Murray. "A strong background in math and science is the cornerstone of our students' education and will help them be competitive in a 21st century global economy."

Brees said, The Presidential Award for Mathematics and Science Teaching is an absolute honor for me. I became a teacher because I wanted to share my love of learning with children. Each day that I am able to teach mathematics and science concepts to my students is a great day.

Angelica Alvarez, the first Latino/a elected to the Highline School board, begins her first full month in office in January.

Alvarez was elected in November and sworn into office in December.

Alvarez says she brings a passion for academic success for all children, regardless of the ethnic and social backgrounds.

She is also interested in improving the transition from early childhood education to school, and in building collaborative, inclusive partnerships with parents.__

Alvarez works for the non-profit organization Child Care Resources where she promotes equity for children, building community stability, and encouraging school readiness.

Her work often brings her into contact with King County's low-income families in an effort to serve the basic needs of children. She says it is her goal is to bring these same values and skills to her work with Highline schools.

Pressure on the ball processed itself into control of the court on Tuesday night in a Federal Way 66-38 thrashing of Kentlake in South Puget Sound League North girls basketball action at Federal Way.

After a holiday season that included victories against state Class 4A No. 2 Lewis & Clark plus a 55-48 win at No. 8 Chiawana of Pasco, the Eagles dominated the Falcons (8-2 overall) all the way to improve their overall win-loss record to 8-2 and conference record to 4-2.

Current No. 2 state-ranked Federal Way still trails unbeaten and No. 1 ranked Auburn-Riverside (6-0), Kentwood (5-1) and Kentlake (5-1) in the North division.

"Playing these tough games really helped us raise our level," admitted Eagle head coach Danny Graham. "We've done a great job of preparation in practice and our girls always play hard."

Federal Way broke away from a tight 7-6 first quarter lead with a 9-0 surge. Trapping defense ignited the offensive run that was triggered by Molly Campbell's outside field goal. Darah Huertas-Vining and TyShana Burgess excelled for Federal Way and foreshadowed the huge roles they would play in the dominant defense and opportunistic offense.

Boys basketball

Federal Way 137, Kentlake 70
Cole Dickerson scored 35 points and Isiah Umipig 30 as the Federal Way Eagles trounced the Kentlake Falcons in a road game played Tuesday, Jan. 6.

Puyallup 81, Beamer 61
Todd Beamer absorbed a 20-point loss at the hands of the Vikings in a Tuesday, Jan. 6 game.

Decatur 77, Graham-Kapowsin 35
The Gators decisively trounced Graham-Kapowsin Tuesday, Jan. 6.

Aub.-Riv. 62, TJ 61
Thomas Jefferson just missed a win by one point Tuesday, Jan. 6 at the Auburn-Riverside gymnasium.

Sea. Luth. 61, CFC 20
Seattle Lutheran soundly thrashed Christian Faith Center of Federal Way last Tuesday, Jan. 6.

Girls basketball

Puyallup 41, Todd Beamer 28
Todd Beamer fell short of victory in its Tuesday, Jan. 6 game against Puyallup.

G-K 57, Decatur 40
Decatur journeyed to Graham-Kapowsin in South Puget Sound League South Division action last Tuesday, Jan. 6 only to take a loss.

Aub.-Riv. 49, TJ 31

The Newport Knights, the Ballard High School girls basketball team's Jan. 6 opponent, are undefeated. Not only are they undefeated, only one team has come within single digits of them all season. They are also in first place in KingCo and ranked seventh in the state.

So how did the Beavers fare against the Knights? Pretty much like every other team.

Ballard was slammed 15-4 in the first quarter and could not recover, eventually falling 65-49.

Eleven Newport players contributed to the team's 65 points, the most given up by the Beavers all year.

Senior Alexandria Lawrence led Ballard with 14 points, and junior Theresa Moriarty contributed 11.

The loss dropped Ballard to 0-5 in the conference and 2-7 overall.

The Beavers have a relatively smaller challenge facing them in their next game when they take on 1-8 Bothell at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 8 at 6:30 p.m.

Ed. Note: This week marks 58 years of being a newspaper owner for Jerry Robinson, publisher of the West Seattle Herald/White Center News, Ballard News-Tribune, Highline Times, Des Moines News, SeaTac News, and FederalWayNews.net. These are his thoughts on the anniversary.

Twenty years ago, after 38 years of day to day newspapering, we sold the papers. Elsbeth and I bought a winter home in Palm Desert, and I concentrated on golf.

It was great, for about two years. And, then our buyers sold out to the Seattle Times.

That arrangement fizzled and the Times bagged it. They closed the papers (all except the White Center News and West Seattle Herald) and kept the commercial printing operation in Tukwila called Rotary Offset we had started in the 70s.

We immediately restarted the other weekly papers the next week.

With my golf game getting worse each day, I told Elsbeth I wanted to sell our wonderful winter place and go back to work. She said okay and I learned a great lesson.

We plunged into the paper biz nearly full time again, and I love it. I found that the best sense of personal value is to be useful to others – to be able to offer something of value.