NEWS-TIME WHIDBEY
Winter Sports Preview. A9 to A14
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 | Vol. 120, No. 96 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75¢
Oak Harbor’s Pioneer Way lights up for Christmas Hopes high after summer of construction By JUSTIN BURNETT Staff reporter
Hoping to start the holiday season off with a good taste in your mouth, Pioneer Way shopkeepers will be giving out free chocolate this weekend shortly before the annual tree lighting ceremony on Dock Street. Sweets on the Street, an event in which merchants will offer chocolate goodies and hot cider to customers – no matter how naughty or nice they may have been – begins at 3 p.m. Saturday and kicks off a day full of Christmas-related festivities. “You can eat your way through downtown,” laughed Kristi Jensen, a merchant and an owner of Harborside Village. Jensen said she would be making something special but declined to spoil the surprise. She will be one of many members of the Downtown Merchants Association participating in Saturday’s event, which is really just a precursor of a day packed with holiday cheer. The street will close to traffic at 4 p.m. Along with carolers roving the streets and carriage rides to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters, Santa Claus is expected to arrive on a fire
Justin Burnett / Whidbey News-Times
Downtown merchant Kristi Jensen prepares for a month of holiday festivities in downtown Oak Harbor. Things kickoff this weekend with the annual tree lighting on Pioneer Way. truck sleigh at 6 p.m. and the annual lighting of the tree on the corner of Dock Street and Pioneer Way will follow a short time later. The tree lighting ceremony has
been going on for about eight years, garnering crowds of up to 2,000 people, Jensen said. With all the construction downtown, this has been a particularly tough year for
merchants so many are crossing their fingers for a strong turnout. But the merchants association isn’t leaving too much to chance and has events planned through-
out December. Next weekend, Dec. 10-11, the winners of a children’s coloring contest will be able to spend SEE PIONEER, A4
Teachers thank residents to stem cuts in Olympia By NATHAN WHALEN Staff reporter
Nathan Whalen/Whidbey News-Times
Oak Harbor High School art teacher Frank Jacques waves a sign on Highway 20 with a crowd of teachers walking toward the intersection with Whidbey Avenue Monday night.
As the Legislature starts work to slice another $2 billion from the state budget, teachers took time Monday to thank North Whidbey residents for their support of Oak Harbor schools. Dozens of teachers, retired teachers and administrators visited Monday’s Oak Harbor School Board meeting to thank residents for their approval of recent bonds and levies that have benefited students. It was one of numerous events taking place as the Legislature started a special session this week to look at further reductions to account
for another revenue shortfall. Peter Szalai, head of the Oak Harbor Education Association, said Monday’s event was coordinated with the larger rally in Olympia to help persuade the Legislature not to make further cuts that would harm the classroom. “We’re thanking the citizens of Oak Harbor for their support of levies and bonds,” Szalai said before the meeting. Voters have generally been supportive of Oak Harbor School District tax proposals in recent years. The current operations levy was approved in 2001, renewed in 2005 and increased in 2009.
Voters also approved bonds over the years that paid for renovations of the elementary schools, construction of the current North Whidbey Middle School, construction of Wildcat Memorial Stadium and extensive update of Oak Harbor High School. Szalai said that when he started teaching in the Oak Harbor School District years ago, he was surprised and embarrassed to see the district lacked a hot lunch program and that leaky roofs forced students to weave around trashcans placed in hallways to catch the rain. A throng of teachers wearing red shirts and wav-
ing signs visited the school board members before walking to the corner of Whidbey Avenue and Highway 20 where they spent several minutes waving at passing motorists. Frank Jacques, an art teacher at Oak Harbor High School, said the evening was also meant to express gratitude to the administration of SEE TEACHERS, A4