Reporter Central Kitsap
kitsapweek week S e p t . 7—13 , 2 0 12
Flip over for
Sound Classifieds & Real Estate Now
LIFE AND CULTURE
Helping hands Thanks to the Kathleen Sutton Fund, women can concentrate on healing, and not worry about how they’ll get to treatment. — Story, page 2
week’s
highlights
REMEMBERING 9/11 Tuesday is the 11th anniversary
of the terrorist attacks in New York City, Shanksville, Pa., and Washington, D.C. Kitsap residents will remember that day in a variety of commemorations. Check the news and Calendar sections of
your local newspaper for events in your community: Bainbridge Island Review, Bremerton Patriot, Central Kitsap Reporter, North Kitsap Herald, and Port Orchard Independent. The commemorations begin
Saturday in Poulsbo with the Americana Music Festival at Muriel Iverson Williams Waterfront Park. The free festival begins at 11 a.m. with an opening ceremony and 9/11 remembrance. Poulsbo’s Sept. 11 Freedom Walk
is Tuesday, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Poulsbo Parks and Recreation parking lot at 19540 Front St., Poulsbo. Veterans organizations will participate in the walk through downtown. The walk is open to the public.
Kitsap Week Healing and helping hands; the Kathleen Sutton Fund Inside
65,000 circulation every Friday in the Bainbridge Island Review | Bremerton Patriot | Central Kitsap Reporter | North Kitsap Herald | Port Orchard Independent
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2012 | Vol. 27, No. 52 www.CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.com | 50¢
City is ahead of schedule on 2013 budget prep
No word on staff layoffs
By KEVAN MOORE kmoore@soundpublishing.com
Greg Skinner/staff photo
Students at Bremerton’s Kitsap Lake Elementary School head for the first day of classes Wednesday following the morning bell. State testing results show local schools to be keeping pace with statewide improvements in math and science scores.
Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent says she and Financial Services Director Becky Hasart are “scrubbing and vetting” 2013 budget request proposals from the city’s various department directors. It’s too early to tell if layoffs will be required to balance next year’s budget, but by the end of the week, Lent expects to have met with every department head in the city and have talked about their balance
sheets and their expectations of revenues and expenditures for 2013. During the 2012 budget preparation cycle last fall, the city faced a small rebellion of public works employees facing layoffs who teamed up with a few outspoken citizens to criticize “fat” salaries of city managers. The Bremerton City Council balked under the pressure, canceled the planned layoffs and reversed direction to raise taxes by more than $1 million. To keep 25 workers employed, the city raised taxes on utilities, parking and car registration. See PREP, A10
State scores continue to rise as Prosecutor asks for less in 2013 2012-2013 school year begins budget request By Patrick McDonough pmcdonough@soundpublishing.com
Going into the first day of classes this week, local schools continued to keep pace with statewide improvements in math and science scores and a small decline in reading scores. In both the Bremerton and Central Kitsap School districts, officials said scores were mostly positive but also said there was room for improvement. Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn, in an Aug. 28 release, cited a 10.4 percent jump in state-wide fifth-grade science scores, from 55.7 percent of students passing in 2011 to 66.1 percent in 2012, and an increase of 4.7 percent in eighthgrade scores from last year. Reading scores showed increases in fourth, fifth and seventh grades and decreases in third and eighth grades compared to last year while sixth-grade scores stayed the same. Statewide testing scores for Washington school districts for 2011-12, were released Aug. 29. Dorn said, overall, he was pleased
with statewide results but found room for improvement in the scores. “We have more ups than we have downs,” Dorn said during a press conference held Aug 29. “Students continue to make progress.” Science scores in the state had greatly improved and he credited the improvement to schools placing an increased emphasis on science in earlier grades. Officials at the Central Kitsap School District pointed out that students’ science scores had topped state averages at all grade levels in the district. The district also fared well in reading with scores higher than the state average in reading in every grade tested, and the district scored higher than the state average in math in all grades except third and fifth. For high-school math in year one, the district scored almost a full ten percentage points higher than the state average and in year two the district scored more than six percentage points higher. The district also scored slightly higher in overall biology than the state average. Central Kitsap School District
Superintendent Greg Lynch said he was pleased with the results and felt the scores reflected the commitment of district staff to students’ education. “I am exceptionally pleased with the results,” he said. “The bottom line is we’ve got a wonderfully capable staff, and I attribute the results you see in these assessments to a tremendous job of teaching.” Franklyn MacKenzie, Director of Secondary Education for the Central Kitsap School District, said the positive numbers reflected the district’s work in restructuring communications within the district. “I think our focus on our instructional framework and a common language that administrators and teachers are using is one of the factors and will pay off over a long time,” he said. He said the district also worked on effective communications with students. “Our training for instructors and staff members focuses on creating relaSee REPORT CARD, A8
By KEVAN MOORE kmoore@soundpublishing.com
Kitsap County Prosecutor Russ Hauge isn’t asking for anything extra for next year’s budget. In fact he’s asking for a little less. “Our budget position is simple: We have what we need,” Hauge wrote in his recently released annual report. Hauge gauged necessity on what he said is a mostly static crime rate and the need to keep county resources held at current levels. “We have to hold onto the portion of the county’s resources that we now have, but right now we don’t need to ask for more.”
In a 2013 budget submitted to The Board of Kitsap County Commissioners, Hauge asked for $7,854,538. The prosecutor’s adopted budget for 2012 was $7,975,000 and the total budget for 2011 was $7,907,000. Hauge says that his office faired relatively well, losing about 12 employees, compared to other departments in the years since the economy went south starting in 2008. “In the depths of the recession we had to make substantial layoffs,” Hauge said. “Everybody has been dramatically cut. We’re fortunate in that in See PROSECUTOR, A10