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INSIDE | Valley Medical Center nurses honored for exemplary work [11] Life in the City | Possibilities exist for Cleveland property, as Carolyn Ossorio explains [3]
FRIDAY, DEC. 14, 2012
Sports | Hazen boys poised to make successful run [14]
Veteran Renton educator named to interim post By TRACEY COMPTON tcompton@rentonreporter.com
Renton Technical College student Lacey Adams was responsible for baking all of the cookies the college created for this year’s CookieFest 2012 put on by the Seattle Milk Fund. tracey compton, Renton Reporter
Christmas cookies made from families’ traditions By TRACEY COMPTON tcompton@rentonreporter.com
This year Renton Technical College baking program students made 1,440
cookies for the Seattle Milk Fund’s CookieFest 2012. The charity event at the Macy’s downtown Seattle store last Saturday raised money for the organization’s
efforts to increase economic stability for families and community through childcare and education grants. More than 20 Seattle bakeries and culinary schools participated. Renton Technical College supplied cookie teddy bears with hats, snowflakes, stars, Christmas trees, gingerbread, Santas, Snowmen and dreidels. Perhaps most treasured were the cookies that came from students’ family recipes and have been passed down for generations. [ more COOKIES page 15 ]
Vera Risdon, the Renton School District’s assistant superintendent, will serve as interim superintendent of the district until a replacement for Mary Alice Heuschel is hired. The Renton School Board voted unanimously Dec. 5 to name the long-time Renton educator to the district’s top job. “I would say that I am very excited for the honor and feel very privileged by the opportunity,” Risdon said at the meeting. “It will be very difficult to follow in Mary Alice’s footsteps, even for a few months.” Heuschel will leave the district in mid-January to become chief of staff for Gov.-elect Jay Inslee. Vera Risdon The board also began the process for a nationwide search for a new superintendent, voting to have the district identify a search firm to find qualified candidates. The process will include staff and community input and community meetings to meet candidates. The school board voted 5-0 to move forward with the district’s shortened timeline for collecting requests for proposals (RFPs). It was agreed that requests would be sent to the four search firms the district presented, with the caveat that any other creditable search firm could also submit a proposal The requests for proposals were sent the next day to firms Janet Barry, Consultant, Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates; Gene Sharratt, Consultant, Northwest Leadership Associates; Ray and Associates, [ more SCHOOLS page 4 ]
SPEEA talks strike with suspension of negotiations The union representing Boeing’s engineers and technical workers is preparing for any possibility, including a strike, with the suspension of contract negotiations with the company. The months-long negotiations were
suspended after federal mediators met early last week with negotiators for Boeing and the Tukwila-based Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA). “There is a real possibility there could be a strike,” SPEEA spokesman Bill Dugovich said.
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“There are still wide gaps between our position and the company’s position,” he said, and the membership “is frustrated.” Additional training for picket captains has been scheduled, he said. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service suspended the negotiations on Wednesday until after the first of the
year. The two sides agreed to the mediator request, according to the agency. In the meantime, the agency will talk with both sides about rescheduling the negotiations. Boeing spokesman Doug Alder wouldn’t comment beyond what was in the mediator’s statement.
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By DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com