REPORTER
COVINGTON | MAPLE VALLEY | BLACK DIAMOND
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LOCAL | Cedar Heights student interviews Olympian Courtney Thompson [page 2]
PLAYOFFS | Tahoma and Kentlake fastpitch move on to district tournament FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2013 and Kentwood baseball gets to state [10]
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Changes possible for Support Center kids
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City needs to fill commission seat soon
BY KATHERINE SMITH
BY KRIS HILL
ksmith@covingtonreporter.com
khill@covingtonreporter.com
Kent School District officials are considering combining two classes in the Cedar Valley Support Center into one for the 2013-14 school year due to low enrollment. The Support Center, which is located at Cedar Valley Elementary, serves special education students. There are currently 12 students served in two classrooms. According to the district website, the Support Center, “is designed for students who cannot succeed in regular education settings or our Integrated Program, even with the supports of accommodations and modifications to the curriculum.” Stated goals of the program include teaching academic, life and social skills, helping students to be as independent as possible, and how to be a self advocate, with knowledge of how to get the
Covington’s Planning Commission needs a new member, and soon. A vacancy opened up recently and with a series of important issues to consider, explained commission chairman Daniel Key in an email interview, it is vital to get the spot filled by June 1. Key wrote that he has served nearly eight years on the commission. A Covington native, Key wrote that he moved back to raise his family here, and since then is proud and impressed with how the city has grown since it incorporated in 1997. “I have always been civic minded and when I saw an advertisement in the Reporter for an opening I applied,” Key wrote. “I had no agenda or specific issue to address. I just felt this was a great opportunity to serve and help Covington continue its success.”
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That’s The One, Mom
Charlie Leipheimer, 5, points out a flower to her mom, Elizabeth, during the Lake Wilderness Arboretum annual spring plant sale May 10. They found out about the plant sale thanks to the signs around Maple Valley. KRIS HILL, The Reporter To view a slide show go to www.maplevalleyreporter.com.
Relay for Life provides family way to fight back BY KRIS HILL khill@covingtonreporter.com
Jennifer Leverton wanted a way to fight back after her husband Marty went through treatment for a rare form of bone cancer in October. “I had to figure out a way to turn this into a positive experience,” Leverton said. “Just anything not to sit here. That’s how I found Relay. I started researching things to keep busy.” Leverton, who lives in Covington with her husband and two children, heard about Relay for Life from a friend who asked her to participate. She called her friend who invited Leverton to a planning meeting the following
week. This journey began with a sore throat, Leverton said. Marty mentioned the symptom. And then it wouldn’t go away. He started off at urgent care. He was given a numbing spray. The sore throat persisted. Marty went to his primary care doctor who referred him to an ear, nose and throat specialist. Leverton said the ENT doctor couldn’t put a tube down Marty’s throat so he referred him to a specialist at University of Washington Medicine. In July, the Levertons found out Marty had cancer, chondrosarcoma of the cricoid cartilage in the voice box. “It felt like somebody pulled the
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pin on the hand grenade, tossed it then turned around and ran,” Leverton said. “Turns out he has such a rare type of cancer … we didn’t have many places to turn.” Marty Leverton is a police officer in Renton. He is a motorcycle officer trained in drug recognition. After his diagnosis, Marty was at a conference for that realm of his job and spoke with a doctor he’d gotten to know, his wife explained. This doctor he spoke with at the conference referred Marty to a physician in Boston, Dr. Steven Zeitels. Leverton said Dr. Zeitels took the time over the phone to talk to her husband and was just the kind of physician they were looking for so they flew to Boston. “Dr. Zeitels explained everything to us,” Leverton said. There are just 271 documented cases of this type of cancer. So few, in fact, that there isn’t enough [ more RELAY page 7 ]
Marty Leverton on the job for the Renton Police Department. The Covington resident is fighting bone cancer and his family has embraced Relay for Life. Courtesy photo