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2014 A SUPPLEMENT OF THE BREMERTON PATRIOT AND CENTR AL KITSAP REPORTER
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2014 | Vol. 17, No. 40 | WWW.BREMERTONPATRIOT.COM | 50¢
Saying ‘so long’ after years behind the counter Medication
policy a tough pill for schools to swallow
After 27 years, it’s the final inning for Team Sports store BY LESLIE KELLY
BY LESLIE KELLY
LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
If you ask Ralph Rogers what he’ll miss most when he closes his business, Team Sports, at the end of the month, it doesn’t take him long to answer. “The customers,” Rogers said. “The people have been so great. I’ve had fathers bring in their kids for stuff who I’ve known since they were kids themselves. Their fathers brought them here, way back when.” Rogers has owned and operated Team Sports in East Bremerton for 27 years. And, although he’s quite a sports fan, he never intended to open a sporting goods store. It was after a career in the U.S. Navy that Rogers settled in Bremerton and bought an embroidery shop formerly known as J&J Embroidery. That shop, in Brownsville, had been in business since 1964. Soon, Rogers found himself doing screen printing uniforms and t-shirts for many own the local Little League teams and school teams. “They’d come in to get their uniforms and the coaches would tell me that they couldn’t find the right balls
LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
among the funding options “We have only two options and those are increasing the sales tax or using the motor vehicle excise tax,” he said. “That’s all the legislature has allowed for us because we are operating at a Public Transportation Benefit District.” What has been discussed is a twotenths of one percent increase in sales tax, which would have to be approved by voters before taking affect. And Clausen also assured those attending that any fast foot ferry program would include the option of reservations. “We used that when we had the trial run in 2012 and we have that ability,” he said. Aaron Matthews, of Port Orchard, said reservations are needed to guarantee that he would get a seat on the
A change in the Bremerton School District’s medication at school policy, that would allow students to take their medications on their own, raised some eyebrows at a school board meeting last week. The board has been addressing its medication policy off and on since September. Currently, if a student has a prescribed medication that has to be taken during the school day, it must be administered by a school nurse of designated staff person. With the proposed new policy, students would be permitted “under limited circumstances to carry and self-administer medications necessary to their attendance at school,” the policy reads. At last week’s meeting, John Grant, supervisor of special services for the district, gave board members a list of more than 1,000 medications that students within the district are prescribed, including allergy, seizure, depression, anxiety and headache medications. Board members were told that in the 2013-2014 school year, the district dealt with 4,800 administrative prescription orders for students. “It’s staggering,” said Grant, adding that of the 4,600 students currently enrolled in the district, 3,936 have one or more health or medical concerns. In order for a student to be given a medication during school, a parent must sign a consent form and the drug must be administered by a delegated staff member with training or a registered school nurse. If the proposed policy is instituted, some students could carry and take their prescription drugs themselves without supervision. Teachers and principals who attended the meeting said they had concerns about students sharing medications. “How do we deter them from doing this?” one teacher asked. School board member Alyson Rotter said she thought the terminology
SEE FOOT FERRY, A9
SEE MEDICATION, A9
Leslie Kelly / staff photo
Ralph Rogers has been the face behind the counter and the business at Team Sports in Bremerton for years. He’ll close his business at the end of the month after declining sales due to online competition. or bats or socks,” Rogers said. “I’d tell them ‘Let me see if I can get them for you.’ “Pretty soon I was special ordering so much stuff that I thought ‘Why don’t I just open a store?’” That was 1999. And since, his
store has moved several times and at one time, he had a store and two other t-shirt shops. In 2011, the store moved to the Redwood Plaza on Ridell Road just west of the intersection of Highway 303 and Wheaton Way.
“When we moved in here, we thought we had a great location,” he said. “There was so much traffic in and out of this shopping center and lots of walk-in traffic in the store.” SEE TEAM SPORTS, A9
Public gets to hear plans for Kitsap Transit foot ferries BY LESLIE KELLY LKELLY@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
It was the public’s turn on Monday to hear about Kitsap Transit’s plans to bring fast foot ferry service back to Bremerton. And some of them told Kitsap Transit that they needed to do a better job of marketing the idea. “Look around,” said Jamie Forsyth, a Bremerton resident. “This room should be full. Why are there so few people here? Your outreach is not very good. People didn’t know about this meeting.” About 20 people attend the 90 minute meeting Monday at the Kitsap Conference Center. They were told that the service could be in operation in Bremerton as soon as the fall of 2015. But in order for that to happen, funding has to be secured, and could
The Rich Passage 1 speeds across the water toward Bremerton. mean a sales tax increase that voters would have to approve. After a presentation by Kitsap Transit officials and consultants, a few questions were asked, most of them dealing with funding for the fast foot ferry. Several people said they didn’t want their property taxes
File photo
to increase to fund the service. Others said they thought the foot ferry system needed to have guaranteed reservations or else it would’t work. Addressing the funding, Kitsap Transit Executive Director John Clausen said property taxes aren’t
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