Your locally-owned newspaper, serving North Bend and Snoqualmie, Washington
Mirror, Mirror Page 5
August 21, 2014
Gigantic Bike Festival Local legend leads Grand Parade brings music, film, art and cyclists to Valley Mountains. It grew from a group bike ride to a full blown festival An estimated 500 bike ridshowcasing a diverse celebration ers will ride from Magnuson of bicycle culture. Park in Seattle to Centennial “The wonderful thing about Fields Park and this combina“And then people get Meadowbrook tion of arts and Farms in bicycles is they to the end, meet their Snoqualmie reach a broad friends, put up a tent, where they will demographic join another audience,” said camp, listen to music, 1,000 people in Jesse Perrell. He hang out in the beer gar- founded The a multi-day festival of campLevee Breaking, den, look at art, watch ing, music, art, the nonprofit movies,” and bicycles. company that The Gigantic produces the — Jesse Perrell festival. Bicycle Festival, Founder a celebration “[We’re] Just of the bicycle trying to be alland Pacific encompassing Northwest music and arts, and embrace a large swath of runs Aug. 22 - 24. This is the creative folks.” first year the festival will hapThe festival will feature 30 pen at Centennial Fields Park bands and 50 vendors, around under the name The Gigantic half of them bicycle related. Bicycle Festival. Previously, the See BIKE, Page 2 event was known as Sounds to
By Sam Kenyon
Calder Productions
Charlie Kinnune, Mount Si High School football coach, waves to the crowd watching the Railroad Days Grand Parade Aug. 16 in Snoqualmie. He served as the Grand Marshal. Kinnune was surrounded by Wildcat football players in the pick-up truck and another group of players walked alongside the truck, shaking hands with the audience. See other parade photos on Page 8.
Failing-school letters to go out, but not without districts’ retort By John Higgins Seattle Times education reporter Because most Washington school districts don’t have 100 percent of their students passing state math and reading tests, the federal No Child Left Behind law says the districts must send letters to families explaining why. But the districts don’t have to like it, and 28 school superintendents have jointly written a second letter they will send along with the first, explaining why they think their schools are doing much better than the No Child letters make it seem. “Some of our state’s and districts’ most successful and highly recognized schools are now being labeled ‘failing’ by an antiquated law that most educators and elected officials — as well as the U.S. Department of Education — acknowledge isn’t
working,” the cover letter states. The letter is signed by John Welch, superintendent of the Puget Sound Educational Service District, which represents the 28 districts. The signees also include the Snoqualmie Valley School District. They announced the protest letter at an event Aug. 13. Seattle Public Schools did not sign it, but supports the letter’s sentiments, a spokeswoman said. In the Snoqualmie Valley School District, like most districts in the state, no schools have reached 100 percent of students meeting standard, said Carolyn Malcolm, district spokeswoman. She noted that the sanctions under No Child Left Behind only apply to schools that receive Federal Title I money. This applies to only three schools in the district:
School districts that signed the protest letter Auburn, Bellevue, Bethel, Clover Park, Eatonville, Enumclaw, Federal Way, Fife, Franklin Pierce, Highline, Issaquah, Kent, Lake Washington, Northshore, Orting, Peninsula, Puyallup, Renton, Riverview, Shoreline, Snoqualmie Valley, Steilacoom, Sumner, Tacoma, Tahoma, Tukwila, Vashon Island, White River. Twin Falls Middle School and Opstad and North Bend elementary schools. As a result, only parents at those three schools received letters. As a result, most parents in the Snoqualmie Valley did not receive either letter, at least not
this time around. Malcolm said that Snoqualmie Valley signed on to the collective letter from superintendents, because even though it only applies to a few schools, that list will likely grow. Under the No Child Left Behind bill, more families will be hearing that their school, or entire district, has been labeled “failing.” Critics say the federal education law, known as No Child Left Behind, is long overdue for a rewrite in Congress, where Republicans and Democrats agree it’s not working but disagree on how to fix it. The 2001 law required all states to create their own standards for reading and math and work toward ensuring every student reaches them, including students with disabilities and those who don’t speak English as their first language. The dead-
line, set in 2001, was 2014. Recognizing that few if any districts would hit that target, the Obama administration granted most states a waiver from some of the law’s requirements in exchange for adopting certain reforms, including the use of student test scores in teacher evaluations, a move some think should be challenged in federal court. In April, Washington became the first state in the country to See LETTER, Page 2 Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71 POSTAL CUSTOMER