Renton Reporter, November 21, 2014

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BAZAAR | The city’s annual holiday bazaar gets under way this weekend. [3]

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ALL LEAGUE | Renton’s Asia Brisco was one of three Renton athletes honored with an Athlete of the Year award from the Seamount League. [Sports 12]

FRIDAY, NOV. 21, 2014

Renton Schools dealing with shortage of substitute teachers Problem is region-wide and stems from hundreds of unfilled teaching positions BY TRACEY COMPTON tcompton@rentonreporter.com

At the end of September the Renton School District had 35 unfilled teaching positions. “That took 35 people out of the sub pool before anybody called in sick,” said Debra

Tito, executive director of human resources for the district. “Before we had any professional development, we had to have a sub in those classes.” Including surrounding school districts, the number jumps to 155 open teaching positions, an unheard of amount, according to Tito. The openings are creating a substitute teacher shortage in the region that’s plaguing the Renton School District, hindering teachers’ opportunity for professional development and affecting students in the

classroom. Substitutes are needed to fill teaching positions when teachers call in sick, but also when teachers are pulled to participate in professional development outside the classroom. On top of this, the district has had numerous unfilled teaching positions they must fill from their sub pool, which used to have 200 people in it. In recent years that number has dwindled making it a challenge to hire substitutes. “A couple of things have happened; with the economic downturn, fewer people went

into education, which then provides us less supply of people who either are going to teach or would be in the sub pool if they didn’t get a teaching job that first year or two,” said Tito. The district has also added full-day kindergarten and increased enrollment, which adds to the number of teachers that are needed. They’ve seen a decrease in the flow of subs into their sub pool and an increase in the flow of subs out of the sub pool as those teachers get hired for permanent [ more SUBSTITUTES page 5 ]

City accepting applications for council position BY BRIAN BECKLEY bbeckley@rentonreporter.com

The city is hoping downtown property owners take advantage of a loan program to update the look of their buildings. BRIAN BECKLEY, Renton Reporter

The City Council on Monday night officially announced a City Council vacancy and opened up the application process to fill the seat, as prescribed by city policy. The council set a deadline of noon on Dec. 1 for all letters of intent and qualifications to be filed with the City Clerk. The council will select a candidate from the applicants. The vacancy was created by the Nov. 9 death of Councilwoman Terri Briere. The chosen applicant will serve until the next general election in November 2015. If elected at that time by the people, the new councilmember will serve the remainder of [ more COUNCIL page 4 ]

Loan program looks to spruce up downtown Property owners downtown will have an opportunity to take advantage of a federal loan program next year, thanks to a change in how the City of Renton plans to use its Community Development Block Grant Funds. The grants will be used as part of the city’s new Downtown Commercial Rehabilitation and Facade Improvement Loan Program to help private land owners improve their properties in hopes of bringing more retail businesses to the

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downtown core. “We hope that this will be one of the tools that generate some interest downtown and will ultimately lead to new commerce,” said Community Development Block Grant Manager John Collum. According to Collum, one of the issues the city is facing in trying to re-energize the downtown shopping district is the age and the look of the buildings. While Collum was quick to point out that there is not a whole lot of vacant space [ more DOWNTOWN page 4 ]

Renton: Impossible

The Food Network will be in town this weekend filming an episode of ‘Restaurant: Impossible’ at the Dog & Pony Alehouse. See Page 5 for how you can be involved.

206-949-1696 info@MarcieMaxwell.com www.MarcieMaxwell.com

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BY BRIAN BECKLEY bbeckley@rentonreporter.com


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