REPORTER
COVINGTON | MAPLE VALLEY | BLACK DIAMOND
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LOCAL | Solid Rock Community Church to celebrate veterans [page 3]
UPSET ALERT | Tahoma knocks off Kentwood to give Conquerors first league FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2013 loss of the football season [14]
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
MultiCare still plans to build hospital
Final push for VOTE Yes committee on bond
BY KRIS HILL
BY KATHERINE SMITH
khill@covingtonreporter.com
ksmith@maplevalleyreporter.com
Plans to build a MultiCare hospital in Covington will be the focus during the coming year for executives from the health care provider. Right now, explained Hugh Kodama, vice president of the south county region for MultiCare Health System, they are re-evaluating the options for a 50-bed hospital proposed in November 2009. What was planned four years ago was COVINGTON a 24-hour emergency department, which opened in April 2012, along with other new services such as a women and children’s center, labor and delivery as well as expanded surgical services with a goal of as many as 58 inpatient beds for acute care. The plan would have been implemented in phases over a seven-year period. Since those plans were an-
Members of the VOTE Yes committee leading the campaign effort for the Tahoma School District $195 million construction bond are gearing up for the final push heading into the Nov. 5 general election. The bond before voters includes money for a new Tahoma High School to be located on 35 acres in the Donut Hole in Maple Valley. It also includes what are referred to as warm, safe, and dry projects as well MAPLE as funding for VALLEY work related to restructuring the district’s existing schools for different grade levels. The committee has met since May and organized the effort to encourage the community to approve the bond. State law prevents the district from campaigning for the bond measure. That effort included having a presence and being available to answer questions at the Maple
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Nick Sandifer is the first cross country runner to carry the homecoming game ball Homecoming Kentlake’s from Kentlake High Oct. 18. Falcon runners have taken the game ball to the game for years as part of an annual tradition. It is about 11 miles, depending on the route, from Kentlake to French Tradition Field. To view a slide show go to www.covingtonreporter.com. KRIS HILL, The Reporter
From middle school to college for bright Covington teenager BY KATHERINE SMITH ksmith@covingtonreporter.com
Gabriella Sciuchetti traded catching a yellow school bus for a Metro bus this fall and high school for the University of Washington. For 13-year-old Gabriella school has always come easy. She skipped a grade, participated in the Kent School District’s highly capable program, and for fun in fifth grade she taught herself Calculus from her dad’s college textbook. Gabriella is attending the Early Entrance Program at The Halbert and Nancy Robinson Center for Young Scholars at UW.
The program, which is open to students younger than 15, allows students to skip high school and attend a year of transition school at UW before starting as freshmen at the university the following academic year. Last spring Gabriella had already taken the SAT test and was talking to her school counselor about planning high school and how to get into top colleges. That’s when the counselor called Gabriella’s parents, Scott and Traci, and suggested they consider the UW program. The deadline to apply was just two weeks away. She called and said, ‘I think Gabriella is a
good candidate for this, it might be something you should look into, and everything flew,” Traci Sciuchetti said. “Initially our reaction was: we’ve never heard of this program before, so what is it. So fist we looked at the program and the feasibility of it, and obviously, once the shock wore off, even the feasibility of it, it was what do we have to do to apply?” Gabriella said that she was hesitant at first, she didn’t want to leave her friends, but more she learned about the program the more excited she got. “It just got to the point of how could I not accept it at this point and it seemed like such a great opportunity,” Gabriella said. To apply to the program Gabriella had to fill out an application, take the ACT test, and submit letters of recommendation from teachers as well as her and her parents all had to be interviewed. “They want to make sure that any student
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coming into the program is not only intellectually capable of being in the program but mentally and socially can handle being in the program,” Traci Sciuchetti said. “It’s a very demanding, intense program. They really ask a lot of good questions.” Gabriella’s studies and the commute to the UW makes for long days, Gabriella gets up at 4:50 a.m. to catch the bus at 6:30 a.m. to make the start of classes at 8:30 a.m. Her afternoons are filled with studying and participating in mixed martial arts. “Pretty much saying yes is committing to having no social life for eight months,” Gabriella said with laugh. Overall, Gabriella said she’s enjoying the program. “I definitely like it,” Gabriella said. “It’s a lot more of a challenge than I’m used to and I’m not used to not being the highest in class which is kind of taking some getting [ more COLLEGE page 15 ]