REPORTER
Mercer Island www.mi-reporter.com
Eastside’s ‘12th Man’ cheers on Seahawks
Town Center public hearing is tonight The Joint Commission, which will recommend Town Center code revisions to the City Council, has been meeting for several months. Tonight, Jan. 20, marks an opportunity for the public to weigh in on the proposed changes. The public hearing will be from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at West Mercer Elementary.
MICA changes footprint to avoid wetland By Katie Metzger
kmetzger@mi-reporter.com
Westbound I-90 to close this weekend From 11 p.m. Friday, Jan. 22 to 5 a.m. Monday, Jan. 25, westbound I-90 traffic will be reduced to one lane near Bellevue Way Southeast then rerouted to the express lanes for construction work. For more, see www.wsdot. wa.gov.
Happy New Year! e e ltoifthink a great e thtime av HIt’s about establishing or t! u wa nyour yre-evaluating ofinancial plan.
By Joe Livarchik
jlivarchik@mi-reporter.com
In a unanimous vote, the Mercer Island school board ratified school district calendars for the next three years at the regular board meeting Thursday, Jan. 14 at City Hall. Mercer Island Education Association (MIEA) and Mercer Island School District (MISD) officials reached a tentative agreement on the 2016-17 through 2018-19 calendars. Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano said producing three calendars is consistent with previous practices to help teachers and
parents with future planning. The district gauged community feedback on future school calendars through an online survey, returning over 400 parent responses, with Plano noting “there was really no clear winner.” “We tried to find a calendar that might suit a variety of people,” Plano said. The primary issue raised with the approved calendars was the scheduling of mid-winter break, which for the next two calendar years, will be broken up over two separate school weeks. Three district faculty members voiced their concerns with the approved calendars at Thursday’s meeting. Seeing a spike in student absences during those weeks, and therefore affecting what educators can teach in the classroom, were
Registered Investment Advisors Financial Planners and Advisors Registered Investment Advisors
REPORTER
Mid-winter break, school start and Labor Day among divisive issues
MICA | PAGE 2
Mercer Island
From12:30-4 p.m. on Saturday, Islander David Schiller will make 1,000 free throws in his annual multiple sclerosis fundraising effort. There will be games and prizes at the event, which will be held at the SJCC. For more, visit http://main. nationalmssociety.org/goto/ freethrowsforMS.
School calendars set for next three years
among the issues raised. Tyson Peters, a history teacher and boys golf coach at Mercer Island High School, said nearly two-thirds of MIHS staff voted against the approved calendars in a survey the MIEA conducted, as did a majority of Lakeridge Elementary staff. He called the 59 percent of district staff voting in favor of the calendars “the lowest vote in the last two decades.” “I have been a teacher in this district for 17 years now, and in that time, I’ve never seen a calendar vote that has been as controversial and polarizing with staff as this one has been,” Peters said. Mark Roschy, MISD director of human resources, led the district side of the calendar negotiations. He said mid-winter break and starting school either before or after Labor Day are always the most divisive issues, and the goal was to serve multiple interests and eventually meet everyone’s needs through a set of calendars. Roschy
STARTING AT $39/YEAR
Free throws for MS on Saturday
Ryan Murray/Reporter Newspapers
Eastsiders line the water at Bellevue Downtown Park as the Seahawks brought entertainment and former Seahawks player Sidney Rice to hype up the crowd for Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers.
After discovering a small wetland in the footprint of the planned Mercer Island Center for the Arts (MICA) in Mercerdale Park, MICA released an updated building design on Jan. 14 that retains all existing programs while avoiding the critical area. “There were so many regulatory hoops to consider [with wetland mitigation],” said John Gordon Hill, MICA’s president. “So we thought, what if we don’t build on it?” The City Council reviewed the lease for MICA at its Jan. 19 meeting. The lease will provide MICA with a piece of the park, where the Recycling Center is currently located, at a rent of $1 per year.
Subscribe online at www.Mi-Reporter.com or please call 1-888-838-3000
Win a Basket à la Française All who enroll for membership in Mercer Island’s Sister City Association by Jan. 31 will automatically be entered into a drawing to win a Basket à la Française. To learn about Mercer Island’s sister city of Thonon-les-Bains in France and sign up for membership, visit www.mercerislandsistercity.org. For more, call Linda Todd at 206-232-4570 or Pat Shafer at 206-714-5830.
Arts center updates design
SUBSCRIPTIONS
MI | THIS WEEK
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20,20, 2016 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2013| |75¢ 75¢
Serving Since1947 1947 Servingthe theMercer MercerIsland Island Community community since
CALENDARS | PAGE 4
2448 76th 76th Ave Ave SE, SE, Suite Suite 107 107 -- Mercer Mercer Island Island (206) (206) 275-2700 275-2700 2448