INSIDE: It’s poppy time ... Island Life, A12
RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY
SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2013 | Vol. 89, No. 38 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
The Village Doctor: Better health prescribed for South Whidbey By MICHAELA MARX WHEATLEY Staff reporter
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fter months of construction, Dr. Annastasia Kovscek will trade in paint brushes and tools for her stethoscope and will begin seeing patients Wednesday, May 22. It’s been almost three years since Langley Clinic closed its doors, but the days of having no medical care in Langley are over. Kovscek and nurse practitioner Mary Bolles will open Water’s Edge health and wellness practice in Langley Village on Second Street. The new medical team will see patients from infants to seniors. They have a background in pediatrics and women’s health, but have also worked in many other medical settings including urgent care. The Pennsylvania-born, 37-yearold Kovscek moved with her husband, Joseph Sendek, to their Third Street home in April 2011. “The truth is we moved to the
An open house for Water’s Edge The medical team at Water’s Edge will hold an open house from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 18 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 19. The clinic is located in Langley Village, off Second Street. To make an appointment to establish care at Water’s Edge, call 360-221-1060 or email dr.kovscekmd@yahoo. com. island for love, looking for a place to settle. I was here for two weeks and didn’t want to leave,” she recalled. As she met her new neighbors and other Langley residents, a theme emerged in conversations. “They would say ‘Do you know, we really need a doctor here,’” Kovscek said.
Michaela Marx Wheatley / The Record
Dr. Annastasia Kovscek will start seeing patients in her new Langley clinic on May 22. An open house next weekend will introduce islanders to the clinic. It got her thinking and Kovscek did the research. “Just looking at the basic numbers — patient to doctors — on South
Whidbey, we’re underserved,” she said. “We’re really serving a need in the community.” However, Water’s Edge will face
the same challenges many small health care providers encounter. SEE DOCTOR, A6
‘Old school’ journalism lives on at old school Newspaper class builds writing skills at Langley Middle School By BEN WATANABE Staff reporter
Ben Watanabe / The Record
Megan Miller, 12, transcribes her hand-written notes onto a school computer during her journalism class. The seventh grader at Langley Middle School is part of the newspaper staff under teacher Mary Bakeman, which is offered as an enrichment period to boost reading and writing traits.
Getting advice on homework, parents and dating in middle school is so much easier these days. The journalism students at Langley Middle School are busy rotating as the anonymous voice of “Coco Chanel,” the advice columnist for the school’s newspaper. “It’s another way for kids to practice writing,” said Mary Bakeman, the teacher in charge of the journalism class. She is also the newspaper’s publisher and editor. Rotating students as Coco was Bakeman’s idea to keep Coco’s identity a secret that stays inside the walls of her classroom. But it was eighth grader Lola Forde’s idea to even have an advice column in the style of “Dear Abby.” “You can have someone else’s per-
spective other than your mom’s or your friends’,” Lola said. “You don’t need to answer about how a friend stole your pencil.” “Then again, we don’t give serious answers.” Middle school students submit letters to Coco. Those letters are about middle school issues: “Dear Coco, I like this guy, but I’m not allowed to date. From, Not allowed.” “My girlfriend doesn’t show me that she cares about me. I don’t even know if she likes me anymore. She’s even told me she likes this other guy. My best friend in fact. I’m not sure what to do anymore … I like and care about her a lot! I just wish she could realize that soon. Please help, PB&J.” As Coco’s creator, Lola described the pseudo-therapist as “refined and uses proper English and is usually intellectual.” The quarterly paper has student, faculty, staff and school news. Two dozen sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students walk around with their press passes and iPads, in some instances replaced by an actual notepad and pencil, and sniff out
the school scoop. Students even broke the news that longtime physical education teacher and student fitness herald Rocco Gianni will retire at the end of this school year in June. Students Mackenzee Collins and Fiona Roberts, both seventh graders, co-authored that story. Mackenzee, 13, enjoys news writing because of the interpersonal connection (she gets to talk to people). In the course of her interview with Gianni, she learned a few things about her teacher. “I liked interviewing Mr. Gianni. He’s really sad to leave LMS. He actually started crying,” Mackenzee said. Journalism is an enrichment period at Langley Middle School. While some enrichment periods are designed to help students who struggle in certain areas of the state standardized testing subjects of writing, reading and math, journalism is a bonus for students who tested well in reading and writing. Each day the class convenes for 30 minutes to work on their stories, SEE JOURNALISM, A6