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Seeahawk Section
FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2014
State gives city another $5 million for street project BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com
Mind games: Nealin Becker plays a concentration game on interactive display at the Kent School District’s Tech Expo on Tuesday at the ShoWare
Center. Below right, Kentlake student Veronica Lewis plays a similar game. ROSS COYLE, Kent Reporter
Expo flashes latest gizmos BY ROSS COYLE rcoyle@kentreporter.com
Hundreds of visitors crowded the ShoWare Center on Tuesday night for the ninth annual Kent School District Technology Expo, which shows off some of the cutting edge devices used to enhance learning in the district. The expo featured 113 different booths, featuring KSD programs, private company vendors and individual classrooms. While
some companies like Boeing, Microsoft, and HP had reserved spaces, most of the room was given to teachers to show how technology improved their classrooms. Kent Elementary teachers Jana Yamada and Patty Dunmire showed off how using the district’s Smartboards and iPads made learning interactive for their kindergarten classes. “You have information at your fingertips in seconds,” Dunmire said. “If I talk about a platypus, it helps with visualization.”
The city of Kent will receive a second $5 million grant from the state to help extend South 224th Street over Highway 167 and up the East Hill. “We hope to bid it this fall,” said City Public Works Director Tim LaPorte, according to a video of the Jan. 6 City Council’s Public Works Committee meeting. The state Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) awarded a $5 million grant for each of the first two phases of the project. A third phase of construction would get the new three-lane street all the way up to the Benson Highway from the East Valley Highway. City officials estimate the total cost of the 1.8-mile extension at $31 million. Kent has finished design work on the first phase that includes a bridge or overpass across Highway 167 at South 224th Street, which dead ends just west of the freeway near a couple of hotels. The new street would touch down [ more PROJECT page 4 ]
Prospective marijuana business owners speak before City Council BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com
Kent schools place levy on Feb. 11 ballot BY ROSS COYLE rcoyle@kentreporter.com
The Kent School Board has revised its request for a maintenance and operations levy, bringing the new levy amount to
$307.4 million over the next four years, which will be paired with a $30 million technology levy. The levies account for 24 percent of the district’s annual budget. The board adjusted the request by replacing Resolution 1428 with Resolution 1430. At the Dec. 11 board meeting, community members spoke about their ideas for the district’s needs, and the board decided that the requested levy amount was insuf-
ficient to accommodate those needs. The tech levy is a replacement for the existing levy, which voters passed in 2010 and expires at the end of this year. It provides a significant amount of funding to the district through a tax per $1,000 of assessed property value. The combined levies will cost an average of $4.45 per $1,000 of property value over four years.
The Kent City Council and two prospective Kent recreational marijuana business owners participated in a spirited debate in connection with the city’s ban against such businesses. Chris Kealy, of Tacoma, told the council at its Jan. 7 public hearing about the ban that he applied to the state Liquor Control Board for licenses to open a producer and
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[ more POT page 4 ]
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