NEWS-TIMES WHIDBEY
Playhouse meets in St. Louis. A10
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2011 | Vol. 120, No. 88 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75¢
Wildcats chase playoff magic Friday night By JIM WALLER Sports editor
Hoping to recapture the magic of the 2006 state-championship season, the Oak Harbor High School football team opens playoff action Friday at 7 p.m. at Wildcat Memorial Stadium against Eastside Catholic. Eastside Catholic from Sammamish and the Metro League owns a 6-3 record; all three losses were at the hands of teams ranked among the top eight in the state 3A poll. One of the losses was 20-19 to perennial power and Metro champion O’Dea, which is undefeated and ranked third. The game will feature two strong offenses. EC, which averages 32 points per game, is led by Chevy Walker and Trey Reynolds. Walker is rated as high as second among state runners by recruiting services, and quarterback Reynolds is a dual threat.
Oak Harbor (8-1) will counter with Josiah Miller and Brent Ryan, both of whom average more than 100 yards a game and have rushed for more than 1,000 yards this year. Miller averages 10.2 yards per carry and has scored a school record 26 touchdowns. The winner will advance to play the winner of the Bellevue-Glacier Peak game. Bellevue is ranked among the top 25 prep teams in the United States by several national publications. Oak Harbor High School athletic Director Nicki Luper said this game is a state event hosted by Oak Harbor; therefore, students will have to pay admission and most passes will not apply. Admission prices: adults, $7; students with ASB cards, senior citizens and elementary students, $4; preschool children, free. Game time is 7 p.m.
Oak Harbor schools fear $600,000 slice By REBECCA OLSON Staff reporter
Due to state budget hardships, the senate has proposed a two-thirds reduction to Local Effort Assistance, the state levy match. This would cut as much as $600,000 beginning in January for the Oak Harbor School District. If continued, next year’s cuts would be approximately $900,000. The Oak Harbor School Board met with Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen Thursday to discuss the issue. Another public meeting will be held Thursday, Nov. 3 at 5:30 p.m. for a discussion with Rep. Barbara Bailey and Rep. Norma Smith. The meeting will take place at the school district building and promotes public comment. Oak Harbor schools spend approximately $1,000 less per student than Anacortes and approximately $600 less per student than Coupeville, said communications director Joe Hunt. Such cuts are especially difficult in the middle of a school year because the budget has already been adopted.
After continual cuts over the past few years, the district is at the minimum for teachers, janitors clean classrooms every other day instead of every day and new textbooks are unaffordable. This means further cuts can only harm students and instruction, said Superintendent Rick Schulte. While Haugen pledged her support in the senate, if the cut happens, she prefers the elimination of entire programs at schools. Otherwise, programs are continually nipped away at until they can no longer function, Haugen said. Assistant Superintendent Lance Gibbon suggested taking a “bold step” and changing the state’s student testing system, which he said could save money, prevent the disruptions of scheduling computers for every student to take the tests and gain back instructional time. “By adjusting our spending on assessments and time required, the state could save over $30 million in assessment costs, increase instructional time
John Fisken/Whidbey News-Times
Offensive coordinator Mike Fisher relays a play to Wildcat quarterback Ian Kolste.
Oak Harbor, Island County duke it out before board By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
Superintendent Rick Schulte and reduce administrative burdens with no loss in accountability,” Gibbon said. “Other states handle testing through valid and reliable paper and pencil, fillin-the bubble assessments in just two to three days. Some states have online assessments that are done in one day for all subjects as compared with three to four days in Washington,” Gibbon said. Haugen agreed to investigate the issue further. School board member Gary Wallin suggested the state take away unfunded mandates, which ask the school district to collect data and perform other SEE LEVY, A4
Members of the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board seemed sympathetic to arguments by the Oak Harbor city attorney during a lengthy hearing Monday over an issue that could shape the city in years to come. The board members sounded more skeptical, however, about City Attorney Margery Hite’s proposed solution. The three-member board took over the Oak Harbor City Council chambers to hear the city’s petition for review of the Island County commissioners’ decision last year to limit the size of the urban growth area, or UGA, adjacent to the city’s boundaries. About 30 people, including more than a dozen citizens, showed up for the hearing, which Hite described as being “of high interest in the community.” The hearing pitted Hite against Island County Deputy Attorney Dan Mitchell and Planning Director Bob Peterson. In addition, Steve
Erickson of the Whidbey Environmental Action Network argued on the county’s side as an intervenor. The argument is essentially over the city’s boundaries. The city planners decided that the UGA should grow by 180 acres to accommodate 126 percent of the expected population growth over 20 years. An urban growth area is the land outside of city limits designated for future annexation and development. The city’s proposed UGA included 105 acres of the Fakkema Farm on the west side of the city. But last year the county commissioners, who are ultimately responsible for setting UGAs, denied all but an 18-acre commercial property, citing problems with the city’s housing analysis. The issue is complicated by the fact that the county was six years later in making a decision on the city’s UGA. The former planning director and commissioners dropped the issue completely after disagreements arose between the city and county over how to handle the environmental impacts of an expanded UGA.
The county commissioners, after being pressed by the city, finally made a decision last year, but it wasn’t what the city wanted. In response, city officials filed a petition for review with 16 points of contention. Monday, Hite argued her points before the hearings board. Ironically, she was formerly a member of the hearings board, which was pointed out during the hearing. Hite criticized what she characterized as county officials’ lack of cooperation with the city and lack of a public process. She said county officials only gave one week’s notice that the issue was going to be on the commissioners’ agenda. The planning department’s recommendation was to deny the residential expansion because of flaws in the city’s SEE UGA, A4