Snohomish County NewsSorticulture’s cool stuff
Doug Ramsey Photo
Ben Fulmer, 6, of Lynnwood checks out a glass and water garden sculpture on display at this year’s Sorticulture at Everett’s Legion Park June 12. The annual three-day garden and arts festival, in its 12th year, combines local artists and garden nurseries with live entertainment and food from local eateries. This year’s event featured a wide variety of native Northwest plants as well as some unusual ones along with glass and kinetic art sculptures.
Farmers market opens at new venue
Doug Ramsey Photo
Asmerra Williams, 2, of Mountlake Terrace looks up as her mother reaches out for an ice cream bar from the Whidbey Island Ice Cream Company booth at the opening day of the Mukilteo Farmers Market June 3. With temperatures reaching 82 degrees, ice cream was a big seller as the market opened at its new location at Lighthouse Park. The market is open every Wednesday from 3 to 7 p.m.
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Students help preserve schools’ history
SNOHOMISH - Riverview and Machias elementaries finished their school years this week after a year’s goodbye celebration at both schools filled with four decades of memories. The students will move to the Freshman Campus next year while their schools are demolished and new schools are built in their place.
The schools played host to old teachers and students who visited the site and gave well wishes for the future, and current students made memorials to honor their classrooms.
For Machias principal Ginny Schilaty, who first came to Machias in 1989 as a physical education teacher and came back in 2000 as principal, she only needs to look at the sign on the corner of the building near the playground and remember where Machias Elementary is in the world.
Its words state: “NO HORSES, MOTOR (vehicles) ON THE PLAYGROUND.”
No horses, Schilaty grinned. This truly is out in the country.
At Riverview, principal Tammy Jones spent the year having students paint commemorative bricks to honor the school. The bricks will be part of the final celebration of Riverview.
Riverview was built in 1966 on new ground; Machias was built four years later where a former 1907 school had stood. The Riverview school was created to combine three older area schools — Riverview, Fobes and Swans Trail elementaries.
At Riverview, the school has worked with memoir writer and parent Ken Hammond to capture the stories of past principals and teachers into a book. The hardcover memoir includes interviews with the first two principals, Frank Gunderson and Carroll Brown, and more than 30 stories. Hammond is working to get more stories before releasing the book in late 2010.
It includes such stories as when Mr. Don Holtgren, in his suit, had to chase a cow off the school grounds and how a goat ambled into the school and spent half the day inside.
The cow showed up while front desk worker Peggy Kindall was on recess duty, and the children ran away while Holtgren chased it.
“It demonstrates what kind of little country school we are,” front desk worker Teresa Hurley said.
Riverview has a family feel to it, Hurley said.
Riverview students have plenty to remember from their time at school. The annual spring barbecue is one of the favorites for Gladi-Rose Goodwin, 7. Emma Lande, 9, enjoys kite day, an annual day of flight. The students also remember the annual tug of war battle between the first-graders.
Braden Hammond, 8, enjoyed prying apart owl pellets — large bird droppings — as part of science class.
“I never got finished because I got grossed out,” Hammond said.
Kirsten Hendrickson, 11, found a bird with an egg growing inside her owl pellet. Hendrickson also will remember Mrs. Amy Reese, who reads stories with students.
The students love Ed Pearson, who brings his accordion to school and could accompany almost any song with it.
The field trips were just as memorable. Kyra Ballas, 11, found her second-grade trip to a salmon hatchery fascinating. Goodwin’s first field trip to the pumpkin patch was “awesome.” She found her first pumpkin there, Goodwin said.
Machias has stories of its own.
The community has always come out in support of the school, PE teacher Lisa Tuengel said.
“At Machias, when you walk in the door, you know people care about you,” Tuengel said.
One stormy night during parent-teacher conferences, the power went out — not a rarity in the Machias area — and parents arrived with generators and wick lanterns.
Parents were conducting conferences almost nose-to-nose with teachers, holding a flashlight up to read the report cards, Schilaty said.
At Machias’ goodbye celebration, visitors got to see the history project that students put together. It was a timeline of pop culture trends and history from 1970 onward wrapped around the school walls.
“It’s just been hilarious for us,” Schilaty said of the trends from years past.
The new schools will include parts of the past. Architectural items like beams and posts from Machias and Riverview will be built into the new schools. The bells at Riverview and Machias will be kept intact.
“You could put three or more gyms in one half of the area we’ll be in,” Schilaty said of the expansive Freshman Campus on Maple Avenue.
Students from each school will be separated during class time but the playground, gym and cafeteria will be shared. The schools will have staggered start and finish times to keep the parking lot from overflowing with parents.
The swings and slides from each school will be moved with parent volunteers to the new campus, and the big move of books and supplies for teachers already started.
The students at each school have been writing to each other through a pen pal program to meet their future building mates.
While there is sadness for the old schools, both principals and young students are looking forward to the new schools being built in their place. The new schools should open during the 2010-11 school year.
To see the designs of the new schools, visit the Web site http://machias-riverview.blogspot.com/.
BY MICHAEL WHITNEY