September 2011

Highline School District press release:
Highline's facilities department expects to save at least $40,000 on energy costs this school year by employing a new energy conservation plan. The school board endorsed the plan last week and updated its energy conservation policy to include more energy-saving measures.

The new energy standards cover lighting, heat and air conditioning, electrical appliances and electronics, water use and irrigation systems, trash, and recycling. The standards include small things staff can do, such as turning off lights and reporting dripping faucets, as well as broader system changes like maintaining moderate temperatures in buildings and reducing lawn watering.

"The district is committed to environmental stewardship and continuous improvement in the efficiency, maintenance, and operations of all our systems," says Andrea Johnson, Executive Director of Facilities Services. "We expect all staff, students, and community users to conserve resources."

A Northwest nonprofit arts group is promising to turn one block of downtown Burien into a mini Burning Man festival on Oct. 15.

The popular Burning Man festival draws thousands yearly to the California desert. Correction: Burning Man brings thousands to the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, not California.

"We've outgrown every venue in Seattle, and this year we are stuffing two acres of downtown Burien with Fire, Music and Art," a press release from Ignition Northwest proclaims.

"We invite you to come celebrate with two full acres of theme camps, interactive displays, fire spinners, DJs, live music and performers, dance, art cars, grilled cheese, suspension rigs, small blimps, neon rainbows, and every other odd thing we can think of. Imagine one city block of Burning Man being transported - streets and all - to downtown Burien."

The Burien event, dubbed Seacompression, is a 21 and over event because sponsors will have five highly decorated theme bars along with local food vendors.

The Ballard football team was held scoreless against the Woodinville Falcons Thursday night at Pop Keeney stadium, losing 34-0. The 10th ranked Falcons capitalized on some crucial Ballard turnovers, as their defense was tough all night.

The Beavers fought hard, keeping the game manageable at the half with a score of 20-0. Throughout the game, the Beavers’ defense was able to make some big stops that could have potentially led to some points, but critical penalties and turnovers were too much to overcome.

Some of the standout performances for the Beavers came from the defense— in particular Jhamante Jefferson and Blake Sechler. Sechler led the team in tackles with seven, while adding 11 assisted tackles. Jefferson had five tackles, two of which were for a loss.

Two of the Falcons’ touchdowns came in the fourth quarter, following a scoreless third. The Beavers ran the wildcat formation at times, which found some success, but couldn’t get past the mistakes made on offense to capitalize on their strong defensive effort.

By Mayor Mike McGinn

Children are part of our shared destiny, and we’ll have a better destiny if we help our children succeed. That means improving education in Seattle has to be a top priority for all of us. The first step is to make sure our students are attending school.

Most people don’t realize that missing as few as three days of school is strongly associated with lower student achievement. Missing ten days of school is a strong predictor that a student will eventually drop out and leave school for good before they reach graduation. It doesn’t matter whether it is a vacation, suspension or a truancy. (But students should stay home when they’re sick).

If children miss extended periods of school in their first years, they are unlikely to learn to read by the third grade. Students who do not read by the third grade are four times more likely to drop out than those students who are proficient in reading.

The new Denny International Middle School at 2601 s.w. Kenyon Street will be the scene Monday October, 3 for Mayor McGinn, and Seattle Public Schools interim Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield, in cooperation with the Alliance for Education, and Get Schooled to announce the Be Here Get There campaign.

Aimed at addressing chronic absenteeism, the campaign seeks to improve academic achievement by improving citywide school attendance through community-wide education and incentives at all Seattle Public Schools.

The event will run from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Speakers will include:
Mayor McGinn
Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield
Jamal Crawford - City Year Youth Ambassador

Mayor McGinn offers his personal perspective on this campaign in his first column exclusively for the Robinson Newspapers here.

By Mayor Mike McGinn

Children are part of our shared destiny, and we’ll have a better destiny if we help our children succeed. That means improving education in Seattle has to be a top priority for all of us. The first step is to make sure our students are attending school.

Most people don’t realize that missing as few as three days of school is strongly associated with lower student achievement. Missing ten days of school is a strong predictor that a student will eventually drop out and leave school for good before they reach graduation. It doesn’t matter whether it is a vacation, suspension or a truancy. (But students should stay home when they’re sick.)

If children miss extended periods of school in their first years, they are unlikely to learn to read by the third grade. Students who do not read by the third grade are four times more likely to drop out than those students who are proficient in reading.

press release:

King County Metro Transit’s fall service change begins tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 1 with significant changes in bus service – and there will be even more for Monday’s commute.

Bus riders are strongly encouraged to study the new service, routing, and schedules before they travel due to the many changes. Information can be found online at www.kingcounty.gov/metro or by calling Customer Information at 206-553-3000.

Some of the biggest revisions are:

Metro is restructuring much of its bus service in Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland to improve the efficiency of the transit network and to integrate with new RapidRide service. This includes: elimination of 12 routes to avoid duplication of service; significantly revised routing for 11 routes; and three new routes to fill in the network.

Debut of the RapidRide B Line connecting downtown Redmond and Bellevue with 10-15 minute service most of the day. The B Line makes limited stops that include Crossroads, the eastern portion of Overlake, the Microsoft campus, and north Redmond.

Sept. 26
Volleyball
Chief Sealth 3, Rainier Beach 1
The Seahawks continued to find success, swamping Rainier Beach by a 3-1 match score.

Lorraine Toilolo scored 13 kills and siix aces for Chief Sealth, while Madeline Twobley had 16 assists, Lorna Sailai 13 assists and three aces, Shaigeko Calos-Nakano three digs and three aces, Sreilak Mao 10 digs and Katherine Kirk eight kills.

West Seattle 3, Cleveland 0
West Seattle scored a victory over Cleveland on Monday, Sept. 26.
Emmie Riley had five kills and 13 aces for the Wildcats and Hannah Burden five kills and four blocks and Maddie Collins led with 12 assists.

Orting 3, SCS 2
Seattle Christian was edged out in Monday's match against Orting.

Tuesday, Sept. 27
Girls socccer

West Seattle 4, Franklin 0
West Seattle won an early afternoon match over Franklin in Tuesday's battle with Franklin.

Volleyball
Highline 3, Evergreen 1
The Pirates emerged as 3-1 winners over the Wolverines Tuesday.

Foster 3, Renton 0
Foster shut out the Indians in last Tuesday's victory.

By Chris Foster, Intern

Golf

The Beaver golf team took on Roosevelt at Jackson golf course’s par 36 on Thursday, totaling 211 strokes to Roosevelt’s 208. While Nick Conkle of Roosevelt took first place, two Ballard golfers finished right behind him. Steward Eriksen finished 2nd and shot 3 over par with 39 strokes, while Michael Day finished tied for 3rd with 40 strokes.

Volleyball

It was a close match Thursday night for the Beavers, who took Woodinville to game 5 before the Falcons edged out a victory. After losing the first game, the Beavers rallied back and won the next two by scores of 25-14 and 25-21.

Although the game 5 defeat was a heartbreaker, the Beavers put up some great individual stats in the match. Monique Marquez had 44 assists, while Deanna Myers totaled 11 kills. Annie Allen, who had 20 kills, was also outstanding on defense with 10 digs on the night.

The Beavers fought hard, and nearly defeated the Eagles—who are the eighth ranked team in the state for 4A. Their next match will be Tuesday night at 7, at home against Bothell.

Soccer

Sustainable West Seattle (SWS) has put out a challenge to get 40 people to attend a 1 hour presentation to help the Earth Project earn $1000 for their garden and future water catchment system.

On Monday October 10th, 7-8PM, at Pathfinder K-8 School at 1901 SW Genesee St , all that's required is that 40 people show up for the one-hour presentation on What you can do to save Puget Sound. If 40 attendees make it – SWS will award the school $1,000 to be spent toward a water catchment system for the Pathfinder Garden.

On top of the grant, SWS will also provide free pizza for the event. One catch? They must be adults in attendance.

SWS's grant allows for $1000 in stormwater equipment to be given as "prizes" at each presentation. In this case the money would be set aside for a system that would hold 2500 to 5000 gallons of rainwater.

The garden at Pathfinder K-8 has become an asset for learning about health and the natural world.