Bremerton Patriot, October 21, 2011

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PATRIOT BREMERTON

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2011 | Vol. 13, No. 41 WWW.BREMERTONPATRIOT.COM | 50¢

kitsapweek O c t o b e r 2 1 - 2 7, 2 0 11

Flip Over For KITSAP

Classifieds REAL ESTATE

NOW

LIFE AND CULTURE

week’s

highlights

Historic homes, historic haunts

PUMPKIN WALK The 18th annual Pumpkin Walk will be held Oct. 21 and 22 from 6-8 p.m. at Bainbridge Gardens, 9415 Miller Road NE, Bainbridge. Walk along the nature trail with 300 carved and glowing pumpkins lighting your way. This family-oriented event is a fundraiser for the Bainbridge Island Boys and Girls Club. Admission is free and there is a suggested cash donation at each attraction. Costumes are optional. Info: (206) 842-5888.

“THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW”

Port Gamble Ghost Conference explores the paranormal.

Do the “Time Warp” on Oct. 21-23 and 28-30 at Central Stage Theatre of County Kitsap, 9729 Silverdale Way NW Silverdale. Performance times: Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 6 p.m. Tickets range from $12-$17 and are available at www. cstock.org. Accessory kits for audience members to participate in the show are $10 and will be available at the door.

Hauntings, pumpkin walks and the Rocky Horror Picture Show : Kitsap Week inside

See story, page 2 The Walker-Ames house in Port Gamble is considered one of the most haunted homes in Western Washington.

Erin Jennings / Kitsap Week

A section of the Bainbridge Island Review | Bremerton Patriot | Central Kitsap Reporter | North Kitsap Herald | Port Orchard Independent

THINK PINK

SAFE Boats loses out Coast Guard chooses Louisiana competitor for big buy BY TOM JAMES TJAMES@CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.COM

Greg Skinner/staff photo

Lisa Stirrett, a local and nationally recognized glass artist, holds a pink rimmed sea form from a collection called “Awareness,” which will be raffled off during the Art for Cure open house to be held at Stirrett Glass Art Studio in Silverdale on Thursday, Oct. 27.

The Coast Guard has passed up SAFE Boats International, a Port Orchard firm, for a $180,100,000 contract to replace the force’s workhorse small boats. According to materials posted on the Coast Guard website, the contract to replace the Response BoatSmall was awarded to Louisiana firm Metal Shark Aluminum Boats. The Coast Guard called the purchase “one of the largest boat buys of its type” for the agency. The original fleet of Response Boats-Small, or RBS’s, was purchased by the Coast Guard under an emergency directorate after Sept. 11. According to the Coast Guard website, the vessels are used widely on waterways, ports and coastal areas. SEE SAFE, A8

Bremerton High graduate numbers on the rise Parent involvement key BY KRISTIN OKINAKA KOKINAKA@CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.COM

Not one specific program or change can be pinpointed as helping more students to graduate high school in Bremerton. But numbers show an increase in graduation rate and there are many factors that have contributed to it. In the 2002-2003 school year, Bremerton High School had 57.3 percent of students

graduate on time and since then the number has increased with the 2009-2010 school year, the most recent information available, seeing 87.5 percent graduate on time. It has now surpassed state numbers with the state on-time graduates at 76.5 percent, according to data from the state Office of Public Instruction. Various programs and strategies have allowed the Bremerton School District to increase graduation rates over the last few years while simultaneously decreasing dropout rates, said Patty Glaser, district spokeswoman.

Chris Swanson, college and career counselor at Bremerton High, who has been with the school for 11 years said the development of some programs such as earning course credit from an Internet-based curriculum allows students who may not do well in a traditional classroom succeed. Throughout his time at the school, the counseling staff has also become data driven to track students’ progress. It’s the cumulation of the various programs that have helped with the trend of more graduates, both at Bremerton and throughout the state.

State graduation numbers have been inching upward since 2007 and Nathan Olson, spokesman of the state Office of Public Instruction, said that many districts are doing various things from “early detection” of at-risk drop out students to one-on-one tutoring. The state does not have quantifiable data on what exactly causes the trend, he added. Swanson said that in 2004, Bremerton also began student-led conferences, which have helped encourage more parents in participating. In fall 2003, an estimated 23 percent of parents or guardians attended the conferences, which primarily included notifications of their children’s grades. With the studentled conferences, students also share their academic goals in each of their classes. In fall 2010, 81.2 percent of parents of guardians participated in the conferences. “When the students are the ones presenting, the parents are even more engaged in SEE NUMBERS, A8


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