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INSIDE | Mr. Scrappy turns junk into charity [3]
It’s Blue Friday! See inside for our special
Seahawk Section
Friday, JANUARY 31, 2014
GAME TIME| It’s the best vs. the best this year. [10]
Rainier and Sunset avenues top city’s 2014 grant priorities Trails around the lake and in Benson Hill also make list By Brian Beckley bbeckley@rentonreporter.com
A ‘Super’ send-off Hundreds of Seahawks fans gathered at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton on Sunday to cheer on the Seattle Seahawks, as the team left for the airport to begin its trip to New Jersey and Super Bowl XLVIII. Later in the day, thousands of fans showed their pride at The Landing’s ‘Volume 12’ rally. For pictures, see page 16. The Super Bowl is set for 3:20 p.m. Sunday. Photos courtesy kelley Balcomb-Bartok
Grant season is beginning to heat up and the City of Renton is gearing up to make a run at some federal and state monies to help improve the city’s roads and trails systems. City of Renton Planning and Programs Supervisor for Transportation Jim Seitz this week detailed for the City Council some of the projects the city hopes to receive money for this year. There are four rounds of “Calls for Projects,” with the first coming from the Puget Sound Regional Council. The PSRC will be distributing federal funds for projects and Seitz said his department is busy working to make sure Renton gets its share of the dollars. Seitz said the top priority in the city eligible for PSRC money is the next phase of the Rainier Avenue South rebuild project, stretching from South Third Street north to Nelson, near the city limits. [ more grants page 15 ]
Renton High School hoping for approval of IB program Renton High School will find out in April if the school has been approved to host a new International Baccalaureate program. Colloquially known as IB, it is a college preparation program for juniors and seniors that expects the students to demonstrate college level work. Students can either pick and choose several of the IB classes to take, or they can go for an IB diploma and take all seven classes, do a research paper and complete community service.
Successfully obtaining an IB diploma gives students the opportunity to apply to exchange credits and gain access to such college’s as Paris’ Sorbonne and Harvard. Students can wave up to two years of college classes with an IB diploma anywhere the diploma is accepted nationally and internationally. But the work will require a lot more studying than students are used to now, said Principal Giovanna San Martin. San Martin is an IB graduate herself and said the program offers students skills beyond just college readiness. “The overall effect, if you like, beyond
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college and career readiness is really all embedded in that piece,” she said, of the international aspect. “How do they operate in a pluralistic community, form their own opinions and relate and understand other people.” Students at Renton have been hearing about the program from advisory sessions that give them details on what to expect. “They are excited,” said Shehnaz Wadhwania, Renton’s IB coordinator. “In fact, our juniors and seniors are upset that they are not going to get the IB program.” If approved, all 11th-grade students will get IB English next year and the first gradu-
ating class of the program would be in 2016. If there are at least 12 or 15 students who choose to do the program and graduate the first year, that counts as success, said the principal. Renton High has been a candidate school for the program for the past three years as school staff has researched and applied to the program. “It’s extremely rigorous and the training the staff needs to have and the curriculum and instructional piece that we need to have to become and IB school is very rigorous,” San Martin. [ more program page 4 ]
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By TRACEY COMPTON tcompton@rentonreporter.com