AUTHOR EXPLORES SEATTLE Jim Lynch’s new book looks at the city’s heady days. Page 12
NEWS | Church lands significant grant for weekly meals. [4] COMMENTARY | Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to rise up. [6]
FRUITS OF LABOR Fruit club adopts trees to practice pruning. Page 5
BEACHCOMBER SPORTS | State is next for many Vashon wrestlers. [12]
VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013 Vol. 58, No. 07
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Officials vet plan for new summer school Principal’s plan would let students retake courses they fail By NATALIE JOHNSON Staff Writer
Top, patrons use the new computer and peruse shelves. Below, Jan Riley, library manager, checks out a book for a young patron.
Islanders check out Vashon’s new library Story and photos by Natalie Johnson The shelves are up, books in order, fresh, open, bright and airy. fresh carpet laid and a row of new Library staff and professional movers computers plugged in. Last weekend worked for weeks to prepare the space, the doors opened to what felt like a and the library shut down for five days brand-new library at Vashon Plaza as last week so thousands of books could islanders got their first be moved across town. look at the temporary “Everyone did a “It’s more like a city space that will serve marvelous job,” said library. It’s a lot of fun.” Wanda Thompson, Vashon for the coming year, until the newly Elizabeth Nye who browsed the ficremodeled Vashon tion section. Library opens in late Indeed, the former 2013 or early 2014. bowling alley was dusty and barren “It turned out much better than I just weeks ago but now looks as if was expecting,” said Jan Riley, opera- it’s housed a library for years. Blue tions supervisor at the library who has and green carpet brought over from been working long hours to make the a Federal Way library sets off a 4,800 transition smooth. square-foot-space packed with bright On Saturday morning the library white shelves of books. There are was bustling with people browsing spots to sit and read, a children’s area shelves, returning books, using com- and a computer table lined with 20 puters and picking up holds they’d new machines. waited for during the library’s closure. The temporary library is about Many commented that the area felt 1,500 square feet smaller than the
one at Ober Park, but it holds the same number of books and computers. There isn’t a meeting room, so most meetings and classes once held at the library will be moved to other locations for the next year. Riley said that while there was an air of excitement at the new location, it wasn’t anything compared to the celebration that will occur when the new library opens in a year. “We’re all looking forward to getting a new library,” she said. Elizabeth Nye, who came to check out the new digs that morning, noted that with a car wash happening out front, dance rehearsals and batting practice taking place down the way and the IGA grocery store celebrating its reopening, the Vashon Plaza was a bustling place that weekend. “It’s more like a city library,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun. It feels like there should be a latte machine.”
After an effort to hold a summer school at Vashon High School faltered last year, the school district is taking steps to see a program for struggling students come to fruition this summer. At last week’s Vashon school board meeting, VHS principal Susan Hanson presented two summer school options for the board to consider. While board members said they were glad to see the effort move forward, several of them, as well as a volunteer who has promoted summer school, said they weren’t happy
with the latest plan. “It doesn’t accomplish what I thought we were trying to do,” said board member Laura Wishik at the meeting. “It doesn’t let you wipe out your mistake.” At issue is the fact that under the proposal, a high schooler who failed an English or math class could take summer school and earn a “pass” grade, but couldn’t change the letter grade he or she had earned. Instead, the old F as well as the new “pass” would both appear on the student’s transcript. Several board members said they wanted to give students the opportunity to improve their original grades, and they questioned whether many students would take part in a summer school that didn’t give them that option. SEE SUMMER SCHOOL, 19
City’s concerns could put Medic One at risk By LESLIE BROWN Staff Writer
A city in King County is withholding support of a regionwide Emergency Medical Services’ levy, opposition that could jeopardize the highly regarded Medic One system if a resolution to the impasse isn’t found soon. The six-year levy, slated to come before county voters later this year, funds the Medic One service and is considered especially critical to the Vashon fire department, which receives about half of its budget from EMS funding. But officials in Kirkland, one of nine cities in the county that has to
agree to the levy before it can go on the ballot, have voiced concerns about the amount of money Kirkland taxpayers pay into the regionwide system and the way EMS is slated to run over the next six years, should the levy be approved. As a result, Kirkland City Councilwoman Penny Sweet went before the King County Council’s Regional Policy Committee two weeks ago to voice her city’s concern and opposition. Kirkland, she told members of the county council, “feels it’s important to inform you … that unfortunately we’re SEE LEVY, 17