Kent Reporter, April 10, 2015

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INSIDE | Kent man faces charges after police chase [2]

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Sports | T-Birds tumble to Winterhawks in OT, meet elimination [14]

FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2015

Sound Transit nears decision on light rail route through Kent BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com

Sound Transit will pick a preferred light rail route this summer for a more than $1 billion project

to extend tracks from SeaTac to Kent and eventually to Federal Way. The agency will release on Friday a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) that

examines route alternatives and multiple station options. The potential routes are along State Route 99 (Pacific Highway South), the west side of Interstate 5 or a hybrid system that

uses Highway 99 and I-5. With the release of the EIS, the public will have a chance to tell Sound Transit which route they prefer at public meetings on Wednesday, May 6 at the Federal

Way Community Center, and Thursday, May 7 at Highline College. Public hearings start at 5:30 p.m. at each meeting. [ more RAIL page 5 ]

Adel Sefrioui, executive director of Excel Public Charter School, talks to parents and students at an enrollment lottery for the school last Friday. HEIDI SANDERS, Kent Reporter

Kent’s first charter school selects location, students BY HEIDI SANDERS hsanders@kentreporter.com

Excel Public Charter School, the first of its kind in Kent, is preparing to open its doors to its first students in August. The school, which will eventually serve students in sixth through 12th grade, will start with sixth-and seventh-grade students this fall, and add a grade each year. The school will lease space in New Beginnings Christian Fellowship, 19300 108th Ave. SE, at least for now, said

Five residents to decide pay raises for mayor, council BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com

Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke and the City Council chose the five residents on Tuesday who will determine in the next few months if the mayor and sevenmember council deserve pay

Excel’s executive director Adel Sefrioui. “We hope to find a space that is big enough to accommodate all of our needs in the next few years,” he said. Sefrioui said the church property is a good fit for the school, with approximately 20,000 square feet of space, including classrooms, a gym and a music room. He thinks sharing the building with church will work well. [ more CHARTER page 10 ]

increases. The five, appointed by Cooke and confirmed by the council, will serve on the city’s Independent Salary Commission. The council approved the commission’s formation in March after the proposal came up in a council retreat. “Council members and the mayor are not to influence these appointees,” Cooke said at the [ more PANEL page 9 ]

Jimmy Benson, above left, talks to the crowd about the loss of his son, Lupo, who was killed in an accident in the Kent-Meridian High School parking lot on April 1.

K-M students, below right, assembled at French Field for a candlelight vigil last Friday evening to honor the late teen. HEIDI SANDERS, Kent Reporter

Young life taken too soon Family, K-M community pay tribute to Lupo Benson BY HEIDI SANDERS hsanders@kentreporter.com

Hundreds of Kent-Meridian High School students, staff and community members gathered last Friday to remember Lupo Benson with a candlelight vigil at French Field, where Benson had spent much time practicing and playing football for the Royals. Benson, a senior, died April 1, a

day after falling off a car’s hood in the school’s parking lot. (See related story, page 4.) “This has been a tough week for everybody,” Kent-Meridian principal Wade Barringer said at the vigil. “It is always tough when you lose a friend, a classmate, a son.” Benson’s smiling face was a common sight in the high school [ more LUPO page 4 ]


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