March 2012

The East Ballard Community Association held two public meeting these past few months regarding the design of Ballard's newest park along 14th Avenue N.W. between N.W. 59th and N.W. 61st Street.

The park has been a multi-year project which started when resident and architect Peter Locke moved into the neighborhood and spotted underutilized space along 14th Avenue N.W.

After various studies, community meetings and bouncing around of ideas, the East Ballard Community Association came up with the idea of narrowing 14th Avenue between 59th and 61st street and turn the underutilized space into a Street Boulevard.

The project received funding from a Parks levy and in September of last year, EBCA selected landscape architect firm Mithun to work with neighbors on the design.

The community meetings allowed the designers to address issues such as lighting, loss of parking, limited access to private properties along 14th Avenue NW, and speed reduction.

Ballard High School senior Louis Weissman has been dreaming of working behind the camera on a Hollywood feature film for the last few years as he worked on numerous films in the Ballard High School Video Production Program.

His goal seemed nearer recently when he was accepted to the prestigious film production program at Emerson College in Boston. Then last week, he landed a job in the camera department for a feature film shooting in Los Angeles this spring.

Weissman was one of 18 BHS video students to tour the Los Angeles film schools and industry on a field trip in 2010. Upon his return, he co-founded 243 Productions with four classmates. Their company has created productions for a variety of clients.

Weissman also excelled on productions in class. His first visual story, Mr. Clean, was an Official Selection of the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) in 2011. His follow-up effort, the digital film Safe at Last, was a Winner at the regional Young People’s Film Festival and will be featured at NFFTY next month. He’s had internships at NFFTY during the school year and in Los Angeles last summer.

The big break came as a result of his LA internship.

With a bit of patience and luck, visitors to Woodland Park Zoo may spot the head of a 5-month-old, red-necked wallaby peeking out of its mother’s pouch. The infant wallaby, known as a joey in the marsupial world, is the first baby wallaby born at the zoo and is the first offspring for 3-year-old mom Kiley and 2-year-old father Maka.

The gender of the newborn joey has not been determined and is estimated to currently weigh just over a pound.

Wallabies are smaller members of the kangaroo family and are found primarily in Australia. At birth, the young are tiny, helpless, and undeveloped, weigh less than a gram and are roughly the size of a bean. The blind, hairless babies make the long trek after birth into the mother’s pouch where they suckle and develop over several months.

Zoo-goers can encounter the wallabies in the zoo’s Australasia exhibit along with wallaroos and emus, large ostrich-like birds. According to Deanna Ramirez, a collection manager at Woodland Park Zoo, the mother can be identified by an orange ear tag on the front of her right ear.

Fourteen year-old Louisa of Ballard may look like your average teen but in Billiards she’s a force to be reckoned with.

Louisa developed a love of playing pool while spending time at the Boys and Girls Club and now she will have the opportunity to master these skills at home with her very own pool room, compliments of Make-A-Wish, an organization that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.

Louisa, who is battling Acute Myelocytic Leukemia, wished to have a room makeover that includes a pool table with all of the accessories, a rug, bean bag chairs, and much more as her wish. Both of Louisa’s parents are architects, and have prepared their home for this exciting makeover to be revealed this weekend.

Olhausen Billiards in Tennessee donated the pool table, and personalized it with the Make-A-Wish logo, as well as Louisa’s name. Dawn Wilkinson, of Six Walls on Mercer Island, will be doing the interior design. Taylor Graham of the Seattle Sounders, who met Louisa in 2010, will be at the reveal. This wish is being adopted by Sound Community Bank, who will also be involved in the reveal

From Burien Library Teen Zone:

Teens in middle and high school are invited to participate in the Burien Library’s Talent Show this Friday, March 30, from 1: p.m to 3 p.m.

Want to sing? Dance? Do stand up? Perform a stupid human trick? All talents are welcome! Sign up is not required. Just show up and perform. All songs and content must be rated PG-13 or below.

For questions, please call the library at (206) 243-3490 or email burienteenlibrarian@kcls.org.

You can qualify for a contract worth up to $7000 if you have an idea that will inspire the community to take action for the climate. The City of Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment is seeking partnerships with community groups or neighborhood-based organizations to get people involved to take action to make Seattle cleaner, greener, and healthier.

They are looking for applications in four categories:

• Transportation
• Energy
• Food
• Waste

and will be providing on-going project design support.

To get started visit www.seattlecan.org to learn more or download a proposal form.
It must be submitted by April 27, no later than 4:00 pm.

You can email it to Sara.Wysocki@seattle.gov, FAX it to 206-684-3013 or send it via mail to PO Box 94729, Seattle, WA 98124-4729

You can also call Sara Wysocki with questions at 206-233-7014

Applications are due by April 27, 2012.

The Tukwila School Board placed Tukwila Schools Superintendent Ethelda Burk on paid administrative leave on Tuesday night, March 27.

Burke will be on leave during the board’s investigation of discrimination claims by nine staffers.

Nine staff members have filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission charging that Burke made discriminatory comments to them.

Burke, who is black, is accused of calling several staff members her “slaves.”

Athletic and activities director J. D. Hill charges that Burke called him “J. Darky.”

Hill also claims that Burke told him he was hiring too many people of color. Hill quotes Burke as saying he was “making the district look too black” and was making the district a “ghetto.”

A few years back, the New York Times named the Tukwila district as the most racially diverse school district in the country.

At the meeting, Burke’s niece, Kipepeo Brown said she didn’t think Burke made the alleged remarks.

“I know how Ethelda is. I’ve known her my entire life,” KOMO News quoted Brown as saying.

Several Burke supporters wore green ribbons at the board meeting.

In a letter to the community for the Alki Elementary School Chanda E. Oatis, was announced as the new Principal for Alki Elementary School

March 28, 2012

Dear Alki Elementary Community,

Today I am delighted to announce that I have appointed Chanda E. Oatis as the principal for Alki Elementary. She has been serving as Interim Principal since October and has been a great fit for the community.

Ms. Oatis came to Alki from Denny International Middle School, where she was an Assistant Principal. In fact, Ms. Oatis was named 2012 Washington State Assistant Principal of the Year. Ms. Oatis has been an educator for 15 years and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English from the University of Washington and a Master’s in Teaching from Heritage University, where she also earned her Principal Certification. Ms. Oatis has also served as Assistant Principal/Literacy Coach, with training from the Teachers’ College Reading and Writing Project.

Five consecutive wins into a 14 match season, the Chief Sealth Boys’ Varsity soccer team is a force to be reckoned with in this year’s Metro league.

The wins have come quickly and convincingly, with high scoring tallies and four clean sheet shutouts (including a non-conference draw against Garfield on March 9).

Here are the Seahawks in-conference results so far:

March 13: Chief Sealth 4, Rainier Beach 2
March 15: Chief Sealth 10, West Seattle 0
March 20: Chief Sealth 4, Franklin 0
March 23: Chief Sealth 5, Ingraham 1
March 27: Chief Sealth 2, Lakeside 0

According to the Seattle Times High School Sports website, the 5-0 start puts Sealth at the top of the Metro-Sound division with Nathan Hale trailing closely at 4-1. They lead all Metro action, including Metro-Mountain.

Diane Amalea Laxton born May 18, 1957 in West Seattle, Washington, passed away peacefully March 23, 2012 after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.

Diane was born and raised in West Seattle, attending Gatewood Elementary, Madison Middle School and graduating from West Seattle High, class of 75. After graduation, Diane held numerous jobs, most notably at Pemco Insurance, where she spent thirty-two years. Recently, Diane was employed at Butter London. Diane’s most challenging, yet rewarding role, was caring for others. Over the years, Diane cared for her grandfather, spent twelve years caring for her two nephews and would be at a friend’s side in a moment’s notice. Compassionate, gracious, loving, warm hearted and generous are just a few adjectives that exemplified who Diane was.