REPORTER
COVINGTON | MAPLE VALLEY | BLACK DIAMOND FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2014
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
NEWSLINE 425-432-1209
SCHOOLS | Neighborhood requests transfer from Kent to Tahoma [page 3]
AT FULL STRENGTH | Kentwood’s girls basketball team’s six seniors are healthy and hungry for a deep playoff run [10]
Hawk property plan heads to council
Gordon makes first staff change
BY KRIS HILL
BY KATHERINE SMITH
khill@covingtonreporter.com
ksmith@maplevalleyreporter.com
Residents have one more opportunity to offer their input on the proposed Hawk property subarea plan at the Covington City Council meeting Jan. 28. After the draft environmental impact statement was completed, the city’s Planning Commission hosted a public hearing on the final subarea plan in the fall according to Richard Hart, Covington’s community development director. Hart said changes were COVINGTON made to the plan based on the suggestions and requests from the public hearing. The Planning Commission forwarded the plan to the council with the recommendation to approve. Hart said throughout the process of gathering input from residents living inside the city and outside its limits, two major areas of concern were brought up – potential traffic impacts from the
One of Dave Gordon’s first acts as mayor of Black Diamond was to terminate City Administrator Mark Hoppen Jan. 2 without cause. “He wasn’t fired, he was dismissed,” Gordon said in a phone interview Monday. “He’s a wonderful administrator and as new mayors come in, it’s common practice that they replace key management department heads. As I BLACK reviewed the DIAMOND staff I decided to replace only the administrator.” In addition, Gordon appointed former Maple Valley city attorney Christy Todd as interim city administrator and Gordon is seeking council confirmation of naming Todd as the next city administrator. Todd was originally considered for the position of interim city attorney as the city’s legal contract expired at the end of 2013.
[ more HAWK page 6]
Groove Horn
Darren Motamedy, a former Kent School District music teacher and jazz musician, plays a song from his 2009 album with guitarist Paul Johnson Jan. 4 at The Spot in Maple Valley. Motamedy returns to the Seattle area frequently to perform. KRIS HILL, The Reporter To view a slide show go to www. maplevalleyreporter.com.
A pair of Tahoma levies will go to district voters next month BY KATHERINE SMITH ksmith@maplevalleyreporter.com
The Tahoma School Board approved placing a maintenance and operation levy and a technology levy on the Feb. 11 special election ballot at the Dec. 17 meeting. The two new levies would go into effect in 2015, replacing the current maintenance and operations and technology levies that are set to expire at the end of this year. “The timing is unfortunate,” district spokesman Kevin Patterson said of the proximity of the levy request to the school bond that was approved by voters in November. “We need to pass these levies to
continue doing what we’re doing.” Patterson explained that the bond measure is strictly for building a new Tahoma High School, remodeling other schools and other maintenance projects that have been termed warm, safe and dry projects. Levies pay for daily operations which are not fully funded by the state and the district’s technology needs which are also not paid for by the state. Levies require a 50 percent yes vote to be approved and there is no minimum number of voters who need to cast their ballots for a yes vote to stand. The proposed technology levy would
[ more STAFF page 5 ]
collect $2.7 million per year through 2018, use technology in the classroom. Patterson which is $50,000 less than the current levy. said that the dollars also go towards trainPatterson attributed the decrease to the ing teachers on how to effectively use the district’s technology infrastructure already technology tools available to them and on being in place and to the decreasing cost of maintaining equipment. technology. As for how they are targeting different “Our philosophy,” Patterson grade levels with the one to one said, “ is the technology tools approach, Walt Szklarski, the “Our philosophy reflect our education. We buy district’s instructional technology is the technology them to help kids in classcoordinator, gave the example of tools reflect our rooms.” education. We buy how kindergarten classes have Patterson also explained that them to help kids received iPads. the district is moving towards “We’ve targeted kindergarten in classrooms.” a one-to-one technology model Kevin Patterson with iPads because there are so in classrooms, but doesn’t have many great applications,” Szklarplans to give every student a ski said. laptop or other piece of techAnother example is the move nology that they can take home to one to one in the core subjects every day. Patterson explained that in of language arts, social studies, and science their research of the community they have in grades six through 12 that the district found that most students have access to wants to do if the new levy is approved. the internet and technology tools at home [ more LEVIES page 5 ] and so the district wants to focus on how to