Record South Whidbey
INSIDE
Education from the heavens See...A5
SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 2014 | Vol. 90, No. 46 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
Team prepares to weigh historic anchor By JUSTIN BURNETT South Whidbey Record If it’s what a team of treasure hunters hope, an artifact connected with the Pacific Northwest’s most famous European explorer will leave the seafloor for the first time in over two centuries next week. State regulators have issued Anchor Ventures, LLC, a permit to raise an anchor they believe was lost during Captain George Vancouver’s legendar y exploration of Puget Sound in the early 1790s. The plan is to raise the 1,000-pound relic from shallow water in Admiralty Inlet on Monday, a date team members say holds special significance. “June 9 is 222 years to the day [the anchor was lost],” said Scott Grimm, a Seattle resident and member of the team. The recovery is the culmination of years of work by Grimm and Doug Monk, a Port Angeles commercial diver and boat owner who found the anchor while diving in 2008. Just where it came from is a matter of some dispute, but research has led them to strongly believe it’s the fabled stream anchor lost from the HMS Chatham [pronounced chat-uhm] on June 9, 1792, the 80-foot survey brig that accompanied Vancouver on the HMS Discovery. “I think everyone on the team is fairly confident,” SEE ANCHOR, A13
BenWatanabe / The Record
The South Whidbey Academy graduates let off a little anxiety before the ceremony begins June 5. From left are Erika Campbell, Cassie Marcial, Jessica Strempel and Kendall Jones. Behind them are Cameron Beck and Christoph Clare.
South Whidbey Academy
Class of 2014
By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record A breezy, 90-minute ceremony Thursday belied the long, winding path seven South Whidbey Academy graduates took to earn their diplomas. A tradition of the program from its former Bayview School days is to have an advocate, someone in the school who has helped them, speak on their behalf and present each student individually to the school board and superintendent for graduation. At the alternative school’s graduation held in the former primary school gymnasium for the first time, after years at Thomas Berry Hall, the students’ stories of struggle and perseverance were shared. David Pfeiffer, the school’s director, spoke of how the students took responsibility for their education and did all of the work that was required for them to walk across the stage, shake a few hands and receive their diploma. “We have no magic formula for pouring knowledge into their heads,” he said. “We haven’t figured it out … They have to want it, they have to go for it.” Teacher Charlie Snelling, who will retire at the end of the month after a decades-long career in education, wished the students luck as they continue their learning and maturation away from the “protective custody of public SEE CLASS, A11
Ben Watanabe / The Record
Erika Campbell, Cassie Marcial and Kendall Jones take a quick selfie while waiting for the South Whidbey Academy graduation ceremony to commence June 5.