Snoqualmie Valley Record, November 27, 2013

Page 4

SNOQUALMIE

ValleyViews

4 • November 27, 2013 • Snoqualmie Valley Record

Valley Record SNOQUALMIE

Publisher Editor Reporter

William Shaw

wshaw@valleyrecord.com

Seth Truscott

struscott@valleyrecord.com

Carol Ladwig

cladwig@valleyrecord.com

C reative Design Wendy Fried wfried@valleyrecord.com Advertising David Hamilton Account dhamilton@valleyrecord.com Executive Circulation/ Patricia Hase Distribution circulation@valleyrecord.com Mail PO Box 300, Snoqualmie, WA 98065 Phone 425.888.2311 Fax 425.888.2427 www.valleyrecord.com Classified Advertising: 800.388.2527 Subscriptions: $29.95 per year in King County, $35 per year elsewhere Circulation: 425.453.4250 or 1.888.838.3000 Deadlines: Advertising and news, 11 a.m. Fridays; Photo op/coverage requests in advance, please. The Snoqualmie Valley Record is the legal newspaper for the cities of Snoqualmie, North Bend and Carnation. Written permission from the publisher is required for reproduction of any part of this publication. Letters, columns and guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of the Snoqualmie Record.

Bond push already? Let’s talk about it first

www.valleyrecord.com

Now is the time to ask questions, firm up the vision for next bond plan

I

s the cart in front of the proverbial horse with the latest Snoqualmie Valley School District bond proposal? I hope not, but as we get closer to a decision to put a $200 million measure to revamp Mount Si High School in front of voters, I start to wonder. The school board and officials are moving into an unofficial campaign mode on a proposal to update and expand Mount Si into one of the biggest schools in the state. Two weeks ago, board president Scott Hodgins, who’s in the last months of his term, told the Record that improving the crowded school, which has grown so populous that it expanded into the nearby middle school, is a priority. As Hodgins tells it, there won’t be a better time to do a major makeover at Mount Si than in the next few years, since the freshman class is dispersed to the Seth Truscott Freshman Campus. You can’t Valley Record Editor fault that logic. Yet, I couldn’t help but find myself nodding at board-member-elect Tavish MacLean’s brace of questions to the board regarding the plan. MacLean, who was elected unopposed and will take Hodgins’ seat in January, was taken aback by the pace of things. He says that the district has not yet answered the important questions on the bond. Basic, no-duh questions—Why not build a separate high school? Why not build another middle school and keep the freshman campus? How do we know this is all we’ll need? These questions need answers. We don’t need to race to another bond. Since 2007, we’ve seen bonds for new schools fail four times—twice for a second high school, in 2007 and 2008, and twice for a replacement middle school for the freshman campus (which failed the first time by an unbelievable single vote!) in 2011. It’s as if the Valley is caught between the desire to do a second high school (which would bring a major transformation to the Valley’s identity) and the wish to simply improve on what we’ve got. The Freshman Campus is one approach to the latter. A supersized Mount Si High School is another. On this page, a year and a half ago, when a new middle school bond was on the board’s mind, I called for healthy discussion, rather than unity for the sake of appearances. Let’s actually do that, now and in 2014. Community meetings on the bond—meetings that by rights should precede any campaign—should be the first of a truly wide-ranging discussion on what we need to do for the future of high school in the Valley. Voters need to take part and lose their apathy. Whether you’re raising students or not, high school facilities and the taxes that pay for them affect your pocketbook and set the tone for your community. Let’s do the vetting process—the process of ensuring that this plan is the best one, the one that will provide the best value for the hundreds of dollars of tax money every Valley property owner will have to pay every year—to the full. Vetting is vital. It’s a matter of respecting the taxpayer. If we’re now in a bond campaign, as it seems we are, then proponents need to pull out all the stops, early and often, to prove that a $200 million expansion of a single Mount Si campus, which dates to the 1950s, will actually meet our needs, both when it is built and for years to come.

How do you cook a Thanksgiving turkey?

Outof the

Past This week in Valley history

Thursday, Nov. 28, 1988

“I would put out a trap, and once the turkey got caught, I would catch it in a net and bring it home. Roast it and season it and put it on a plate.” Mica Gerth Kindergartener, North Bend

“You catch it. I would use a net. And you put it in the oven. Then you eat it. I only use my pretend oven.” Charlotte Musler Kindergartener, North Bend

• A bereaved nation, still lying in a state of shock, said goodbye to John F. Kennedy on Monday. The memorial service is over, but the burden is ours to carry. Every American should search his his heart. Only the assassin fired the fatal shot, but the stage for the vicious act had been slowly and surely set in a climate of ugliness, hate and distortion that many persons have encouraged, either by outright participation or silent acquiesence, in the last few years. This is our collective shame, that this should have happened here. -Valley Record editorial

Thursday, Nov. 24, 1963

“You cook it in the oven, at 90.” Slater Sarieddine Kindergartener, North Bend

“Roast it in a barbecue. Cook it up. Put it on a plate.” Ethan Short Kindergartener, North Bend

• Hearings on Weyerhaeuser’s massive, proposed Snoqualmie Ridge development begin Monday, with a joint hearing between the city council and planning commission on two parts of the process: Adopting the master plan into the comprehensive and plan and adopting the Mixed Use designation for the 2,050-acre parcel.


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