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CRIME WATCH | Redmond Police blotter [3] opinion | Remembering slain Washington State Trooper Tony Radulescu [4]
LOCAL | LWSD to implement new SPORTS | Mustang baseball reloaded, ready to FRIDAY, March 16, 2012 online payment system next week [11] compete for another state appearance [7]
Eyman continues legal fight against the city despite court ruling BILL CHRISTIANSON bchristianson@redmond-reporter.com
Faith Lutheran School principal Barbara Deming helps third grader Hayden Wong check his email. The 8-year-old was principal for a day at the Redmond school last Friday and performed many of the duties Deming does on a daily basis. Samantha Pak, Redmond Reporter
Redmond’s pint-sized principal Third grader Hayden Wong, 8, gets a taste of school leadership at Faith Lutheran Samantha Pak spak@redmond-reporter.com
Last Friday, Hayden Wong arrived at Faith Lutheran School in Redmond ready to learn just like any other school day. But rather than an education in reading, writing and arithmetic, the 8-year-old spent the day learning about what it takes to be a school principal. From greeting students and parents first thing in the morning and collecting classroom attendance sheets to conducting a fire drill and giving school tours to potential students’ families, Hayden gained firsthand experience in what it takes to run a school. And while there was a lot to do, he was not surprised. “I really expected it to be kind of busy,” the third grader said, adding that he’d watched a video of last year’s student principal. The Principal for a Day experience has been an annual tradition at the school for about 15 years and comes from Faith Lutheran’s annual auction, which helps pay for programs at the school including special arts, music and physical education classes that bring instructors from outside the school that go beyond tuition-covered teacher salary. This year’s auction will be March 23 at the Redmond Marriott Town
Center hotel, located at 7401 164th Ave. N.E., at 5 p.m. Heather Wong, Hayden’s mother and a teacher at the school, said faculty members offer different “teacher experiences” as auction items and Principal for a Day is one such experience. She and her husband Dutchin Wong bid on it for Hayden because they wanted their son to experience being in a leadership position and learn how a school is run. “It’s really important to us for our kids to have a wonderful experience at school,” Heather said. Faith Lutheran has about 100 students ranging from 2 years old to the fourth grade and the principal experience is open to all ages -- whoever places the winning bid at the auction. Principal Barbara Deming has been on the job for six years and said each year she has had an elementary-age student principal, adding that having a younger student would be difficult, but they would figure out what to do. In addition to running the school for a day, she said student principals receive a commemorative key to mark the special occasion. Throughout the day, Deming walked Hayden through her typical daily tasks as he performed them. One of these tasks was making the morning announcement, which included reciting the Pledge of Al-
legiance and the morning prayer. Hayden had a small case of nerves during the prayer and came down a bit hard on himself for it, but as he visited classroom during morning attendance, he saw that others were pretty forgiving. Hayden said the classroom visits were among his favorite duties as principal. “I actually liked walking around the school and getting attendance and meeting the kids,” he said. Ever the professional, “Principal Wong” went out of his way to shake hands with students of all ages, some of whom had no qualms about using a student principal to their advantage and requested special privileges. “Everyone was asking questions like, ‘Can we have an extra hour of recess?’” Hayden said. While Hayden wasn’t able to grant that request, he was able to extend second recess by a few minutes and let students have recess in the woods on the school grounds, which is more difficult to supervise and a privilege saved for special occasions. Hayden said he enjoyed the whole experience but doesn’t know if he wants to be a school principal when he grows up. And at 8, he still has time. “I might want to be a kid a little longer,” he said.
Tim Eyman is not backing down in his legal fight against the City of Redmond, despite last week’s state Supreme Court ruling that stated local voters don’t have the right to ban red-light cameras. Eyman said he has no plans of withdrawing his appeal with Division 1 of the Washington Court of Appeals, which Eyman hopes will reverse a county court decision that blocked Redmond’s citizen-driven initiative to ban traffic-enforcement cameras through a vote of the people. But if Redmond City Council approves an upcoming recommended joint plan by the Redmond police and public works departments, there will be no trafficenforcement cameras to ban. Eyman, a Mukilteo resident and state initiative advocate, has organized many anti-traffic-ticketing-camera petitions across the state that have caused legal battles in several cities, including Redmond. Redmond’s petition effort began in early 2011, but was halted last October when a King County Superior Court judge tossed out a lawsuit that Eyman filed over the city’s refusal to hand the petition over to King County elections for verification. Tim Eyman “We are arguing in Redmond that the signatures should have been counted,” Eyman said. “The lawsuit and appeal will continue. It is an important principal that we continue this fight.”
NEW PLAN: NO SPEED CAMERAS
The recommended long-range, comprehensive traffic safety plan will be presented to the City Council’s public safety committee at its monthly meeting March 27 and “we are not recommending speed cameras in school zones as we move forward,” according to Redmond Police Chief Ron Gibson. Instead, the school-zone traffic safety plan recommends using speed indicator signs — which flash the speed of oncoming vehicles, along with flash beacons at crosswalks, Gibson said. The plan will also include increased public education efforts and targeted enforcement, Gibson said. Gibson said there are still a lot of questions concerning funding of the recommended plan and the timeline for a City Council vote on the issue is still to be determined. “This is just the start of the process of informing Council of our plans and wish list,” Gibson said. The city’s red-light program — the use of traffic-ticketing cameras at intersections — ended Jan. 31 of this year after City Council unanimously voted last November to end its contract with camera vendor American Traffic Solutions (ATS). Council members said the cameras did not conclusively have an impact on safety, based on collision data. However, the Council decided to keep two speed cameras near Einstein Elementary through the end of the school year. [ more eyman page 6 ]