REPORTER
Mercer Island
Serving the Mercer Island community since 1947
Gravel truck overturns on EMW
Students celebrate diversity
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
MISD listening session May 22 The Mercer Island School District will host a listening sesson on Wednesday, May 22 at the North Mercer Campus gym at 7 p.m. The session is to discuss the new elementary school and high school expansion on the North Mercer campus. Learn more at www.mercerislandschools.org.
Neighbors heard a loud boom, then the sound of spilling gravel By Reporter Staff
What ‘timebanking’ can do for you Timebanking is a way to save money and build community. Find a way to ‘trade’ some things off your ‘to do’ list. Learn about the benefits of trading services between likeminded individuals in a community between 6 and 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 22, at the Community and Event Center. Refreshments will be served. For more information, go to www.mercergov.org.
Memorial Day closures May 27 Mercer Island schools, Mercer Island City Hall and the post office will all be closed on Monday, May 27, in honor of the Memorial Day holiday. The Reporter office will also be closed.
Letterboxing begins Saturday, June 1 Letterboxing on Mercer Island will begin on Saturday, June 1, during the Mercer Island Parks and Recreation Trails Day celebration at Pioneer Park. Learn more at www.playonmercer.com.
Rebecca Mar/Staff Photo
During a world cultures fair at Lakeridge Elementary School, Brigit O’Rourke, fifth grade, and Charley Buton, fourth grade, dance with a troupe from the Comerford School of Irish Dance on Wednesday, May 15.
Dingle wants to get bond issue finished Adair Dingle to run for third term for Mercer Island School Board By Mary L. Grady
editor@mi-reporter.com
After a bruising defeat of the bond measure designed to bring Mercer Island schools into a place for 21st century learning, School Board member Adair Dingle said she is determined to stay on the board to ensure that the next such measure — greatly revised and reduced in scope from the original measure — will pass. Dingle said that she is dismayed that the initial $196 million proposal lost by such a large margin. She is concerned that the need for
crowding, but not have the best design for all of the other needs, she explained. The school district hopes to have a new proposal, a $70 million bond, for voters in 2014. “Size (overcrowding) was not a big issue in the original bond the new facilities is focused now issue,” she said, noting that the board and other observers got into simply on overcrowding. Some of the impetus for the a long discussion about optimal original bond has been lost, she size of an elementary school. The notion that smaller said. “We were elementary schools not focused just were optimal, going on the scale of from 600 to 500 stuwhat was needed dents, she said, was for students, but an example of how on what kind of Adair Dingle, Mercer Island the discussion veered environment is School District Board of away from what was needed now for Directors really needed. learning.” “Now with the “It has become a kind of ‘one size fits all’ approach move to include the smaller-sized schools, some of the economies of to facilities planning,” she said. Dingle considered the first pro- scale will be lost,” she observed. She believes that most voters posal presented to the voters as the optimal design. Now with the are not aware that the state timber need to reduce the size of the bond sales, which paid for the schools in order to secure voter approval, in the past, are no longer there. the new design will solve overDingle | Page 2
Total Experience Gospel Choir Friday, May 31, 7:30PM
It was 9:30 a.m. on May 14, a mild spring morning. Both Dick Moller and his neighbor, Jack Cusack, were home. Suddenly, there was the sound of brakes and a loud boom. “It was so loud,” said Cusack, with emphasis. “I looked out, then went to find my camera.” Moller also heard the boom and went up to see a dump truck with an attached trailer turned on its side. He saw a huge gash made by the vehicle in the slope at the side of the road.
“It has become a ‘one size fits all’ approach.”
Truck | Page 2
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Mercer Island Presbyterian Church Free Will Offering
3605 84th Ave SE, Mercer Island www.MIPC.org 206-232-5595