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SOUNDER THE ISLANDS’
Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County
www.islandssounder.com
WEDNESDAY, May 22, 2013 VOL. 46, NO. 21 75¢
Road to learning by CALI BAGBY Staff reporter
Cali Bagby/Staff Photo
First grader Lluvia Qunitero works on an assignment in Homework Club, which is part of the Orcas School District’s English Language Learners’ program. Lluvia speaks Spanish and English. The ELL program also offers parenting classes and has created a Spanish library.
Everyone was frustrated. Students could not understand the homework and their Spanishspeaking parents were struggling to help, but could not read the directions in English. “Homework can be a difficult dynamic if parents are unable to help,” said Robin Freeman, Orcas School District’s English Language Learners’ teacher. “Stress around homework can set up a power struggle after school.” In response to this educational battle the Homework Club was established three years ago. The ELL program also held parenting classes and has created a Spanish library. All three new additions have been funded by an anonymous donor. Catherine Laflin has been the ELL coordinator for five years and has watched the program grow from about seven students to 23 students, with three new kindergarteners coming in next year. Currently students are from homes that speak Thai as well
Two in the running for county manager by STEVE WEHRLY Journal reporter
A day and a half of closed session interviews with applicants for the county manager position has reduced the field to two undisclosed finalists. County Human Resource Manager Pamela Morais said the council has asked for more information about the two finalists, and will meet again in executive session Tuesday, May 21, to further discuss the two finalists. A final decision must be made in an open council meeting, which is expected, but not guaranteed, to occur the same day. With the help of the Prothman Company of Issaquah, an executive search consultant that specializes in finding local government managers, the council winnowed 44 resumes down to seven, two of whom declined to proceed further. Five San Juan County residents applied, and several other applicants had historical or family ties to the islands. Morais declined to
name any names beyond the six finalists previously released to the media. After spending Monday, May 13, touring the county and meeting local residents at open houses on Orcas, Lopez and San Juan Islands, the five candidates spent Tuesday rotating through three meeting rooms and three audiences at county headquarters. Separate panels of citizens and department managers met with the candidates, but whether the panels presented findings to the council was not disclosed. The council itself spent most of Tuesday meeting in executive session, interviewing the remaining five candidates. Two finalists were asked back for the private interviews the following day. All five finalists were selected from a larger first-cut list of applicants recommended by Prothman for the job. The new county manager will replace the prior county administrator, a position originally created by the county charter, then eliminated in one of three amendments endorsed by the Charter Review Commission and approved
by voters in November. That vote also reduced the county council from six part-time legislators to three full-time elected positions vested with both legislative and executive duties. The county manager, who will be paid about $150,000 a year, will assist the new three-person county council in overseeing the functions of local government and those departments not managed by another elected county official, such as the sheriff, auditor or prosecuting attorney. San Juan County’s only administrator, Pete Rose, hired in 2006 as part of the implementation of the charter, resigned in 2012. Since then, Bob Jean has been acting administrator and then acting manager. The five candidates selected as finalists for job are: David Wilbrecht of Mammoths Lakes, Calif., Suzanne Sinclair of Seneca Falls, N.Y., Michael Pence from Flathead County, Mont., Jim Pascale of Hopewell N.J., and Michael Thomas, of Enumclaw, Wash.
as Bahasa from Indonesia, but the majority of students speak Spanish. Laflin says she is regularly inspired by all the little steps along the way that the students take towards learning a second language. “These students are so often working twice as hard as others, as they learn the content and the language at the same time,” she said.
The Homework Club The Homework Club runs on Mondays and Wednesdays after school. The program is open to students in first through eighth grade. According to Freeman, who is the lead teacher of the homework club, the average English speaking kindergarten student enters school with a 1,000-word vocabulary, which is also true of ELL students in their home language. But they have to build their English repertoire of words. “It is exhausting listening to a new language all day long,”
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