Parents may support sports cuts
I have one child in elementary school and two in high school. All play sports and I am sorry to see the middle school sports program go. However, on any day I would vote to get rid of it, if it means keeping teachers or other staff.
My kids already pay to play. Select basketball is $395 per season, baseball is $110 for Little League and over $1,500 at higher levels. Football is $225 per season. The middle school opportunity was great. In fact, it was a really great day-care. For free, I had after school care for my children everyday, and then they were driven home. I would never pay to play at the middle school level, and because I work, I could not drive my kids anyway.
A letter was written that over 1,200 children participated. The number is probably closer to 500 students playing two, three or even four sports.
It was also stated that without competitive sports, there would be no accountability to grades, no character building. This does not have to be done through middle school sports. My level of grade accountability is much higher than the “no F” policy the district has. I want my children to earn a minimum 3.0.
Their non-school coaches have had a much higher impact in their lives, often coaching them through elementary and middle school.
Another point brought up in the meeting was that the elimination of middle school sports would hurt our high school programs. Baseball, softball and gymnastics are not in the middle schools, and they are very successful at the high school level. Bellevue, Issaquah and Skyline football programs do fine in high school without middle school football programs.
Every sports program offered in middle school is offered by a community organization. This is not the end of middle school sports, it is just a change of venue. Maybe the Metropolitan Parks district, which we all pay for, can pick up some of the ownership of this. They already have an extensive youth activities program.
There is a huge group of parents who would be OK with the cut — parents who would fight to preserve classroom learning, and put extracurriculars back in the hands of the families, parents who would fight for clean classrooms, and teachers’ assistants rather than middle school sports.
There was a small group of the population at the Thursday, April 16 meeting with a big voice. A much bigger group responded to the district’s survey and put middle school sports at the bottom of the list of programs to retain. I hope the district uses what we have wisely and listens to the community at large, not just the small percentage present on Thursday.
Laurie Raffetto
Ironies of ‘silencing the silencers’
Irony is apparent in the unfortunate success of the few in Snoqualmie Valley who through vocal protest sought to squelch student participation in the Day of Silence.
Within a “Trojan horse” claim of disruption to learning, motivated by personal beliefs counter to the mission of the Day of Silence, their vocal protest ironically succeeded by silencing those students who chose school absence, or declined to participate in the event., in order to avoid the conflict.
Further irony is evidenced in the Star newspaper quote of Mount Si student Trey Botten, who, in arguing to eliminate the Day of Silence because of the alleged conflict it causes, said “There never should be a time in a public school setting where students should feel divided at the school.” This is, ironically, the everyday experience of gay, lesbian and other students whose color, creed or preference lies outside the dominant paradigm.
The student leaders and faculty advisors of the Day of Silence are to be lauded for staying staunch and true to the principles of civility and inclusion at the core of their mission. It is our American legacy, and responsibility as members of our excellent democracy, to actively assert the place of all in society. And thus the final, sweet irony: through vocal protestations to silence the Day of Silence, our collective awareness of and sensitivity to student harassment and discrimination continue to rise.
Mike McMann
North Bend
Thanks for the cleanup help
I participated in a cleanup of the totem pole garden in Fall City, where we dumped the debris at Rainier Wood Recyclers. I work at Fall City Elementary School, and we cleaned up the gardens there and dumped the debris at Rainier. I brought my own stuff down instead of burning it, and hauled two loads for one of the teachers at school, so it made a huge difference to me.
I just wanted to give a huge thank you to Rainier Wood Recyclers for allowing free dumping of limbs and branches for the entire month of April!
What a wonderful way to help keep our yards, our community, and our skies clean. Thanks for the affordable alternative to burn piles, and for being a caring member of our community.
Diane Johnson
Fall City
Those aren’t pine cones
It’s hard to nail down who made the boo-boo on pine cones in the article “New logo for downtown,” (April 15). But it brings back memories.
First of all, you should know that the timber industry here is built on Douglas fir, followed by Western hemlock, then Western redcedar and finally Sitka spruce. Notice that pine trees aren’t mentioned. This is because they simply are not native here.
Years ago, when the Snoqualmie Planning Commission had nine members and we’d been working on Phase I of Snoqualmie Ridge for many, many months, Weyerhaeuser commissioned an artist to come up with the Snoqualmie Ridge logo. They came to a planning commission meeting to show off their new emblem, but without checking the respected artist’s work too closely. The new logo was displayed and they were laughed out of the meeting. Yes, the logo had pine cones (I wish I had kept a copy for historical purposes). However, just about every one of the nine commissioners owed some portion of their personal or genetic past to work in the local timber industry and knew of the importance of Douglas fir and the non-existence of pines.
Weyerhaeuser (and the artist) quickly recovered by the next planning commission meeting, offering the fir-cone laden emblem we enjoy for the Ridge today, but the boo-boo did help emphasize the fact that pine cones are not a generic term for conifer cones — at least not in the Snoqualmie Valley.
Dave Battey
Snoqualmie
On to new prospects
Well, it’s been seven years — seven years of working with some of the most wonderful businesses, clients and friends.
I came back to the Valley after growing up here, and I couldn’t have landed a better job than I did here at the paper. I would’ve had hoped to have made it like Jimmy Mack (former publisher Jim McKiernan) did, with his kids graduating from high school and working for the paper, and watching all of your children and mine growing up together. But an opportunity came looking for me, and I grabbed it.
In the years that I’ve worked for the Snoqualmie Valley Record, my desire was always to make sure that you, the business owners, were taken care of, because we can’t succeed without each other. Through floods, snow storms, power outages, even bomb threats at the high school, making sure your kids and mine were okay, we made it.
So, thank you to those for who, in the beginning, did my crafts with me when I wrote for the paper. Thank you to those who have been with me until the end.
I can now write letters to the editor and go to Valley school board meetings. Sweet!
Leesa McKay
Snoqualmie
• Valley Record account executive Leesa McKay’s last day at the paper is Friday, May 1. She is the new in-house marketing administrator at Chaplin’s North Bend Chevrolet.
