It may be 2008, but Mercer Island School District leaders are thinking like it is 2020.
Mary Chalker has an enviable commute. Step out the back door, walk through the yard and there she is; a key’s turn away from her custom framing workshop. Like many Islanders with Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) or “mother-in-laws” as they’re often called, the small house behind Chalker’s home is a luxury she’d be heartbroken to give up.
Record snowfall threw Mercer Island into to a white flurry last week, canceling school for three days, closing roads, and keeping most Islanders at home for a long weekend.
The City of Mercer Island Design Commission approved a final design for the Boys & Girls Club PEAK facility on Dec. 10. The seven-member commission has spent the past several months reviewing the Weinstein A/U design and granted preliminary approval on Nov. 12.
The new Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club in Seattle stands bright and bold against a muddy landscape of development. The new youth recreation center offers Islanders a glimpse of what’s to come in 2009: the Boys & Girls Club PEAK project.
Alex Banbury may be the youngest Islander to earn his amateur radio technician license. At age 10, the Island Park fifth-grader has joined the Mercer Island Radio Operators (MIRO) Club, alongside his father and a dozen other ham radio veterans. The hobby, which dates back to the early 1900s, unites radio enthusiasts across the globe. Amateur, or “ham” radio as it is often called, is used for public service, personal enjoyment and as a means of exploring radio technology.
A year after dropping mid-winter break, the Mercer Island Education Association (MIEA) and School Board are preparing to review the district’s school year calendar. As promised when adjustments to the 2007-08 calendar were made last year, the district is conducting a parent/faculty survey, asking for public input on the current calendar.
Island native Greg Palmer, an accomplished Northwest journalist, talk-show host and writer, has published a memoir resurrecting teenage life on Mercer Island in the mid-1960s. Dating back to 1965, “Cheese Deluxe: A Memoir” unfolds from the perspective of 17-year-old Palmer, whose first job was grilling cheese deluxe burgers at the Samoa Drive-In on Mercer Island. The long-defunct burger hut was a popular hang-out for Island teens. Full of anecdotes and humor, the memoir follows the antics of Palmer and his friends, though the author confesses that some of what he writes is “pure fiction, because things don’t always work out the way they should.”
Walking into Tom Randall’s apartment is like stepping into a life-size kaleidoscope. Detailed stained glass mosaics, patterns and pictures illuminate his windows. They hang from every one of his walls, rest on wooden shelves and wrap around light bulbs, clock faces and stovetops.
When it comes to athletic school spirit, Mercer Island High School trumps Title IX with a royal flush. Cheerleaders, flag dudes, the high school band, drill team, the Snail Pound, the Islander Girls — these spirited students can be found at one sporting event or another, oftentimes as one unified crowd of maroon and white. They don’t ignore the girls sports. They make a point to attend all events; whether a rainy cross country race in a muddy park or the Homecoming football game. At Mercer Island High School, school spirit reigns.
St. Monica School is taking steps to establish its first pre-kindergarten and after-school daycare program. The school has already applied for a conditional-use permit from the City of Mercer Island to build a 2,000-square-foot building north of the St. Monica rectory. The development site is currently a vacant grass field, seldom used by children at St. Monica, said the school’s principal, Pam Dellino.
To many, the acronym D.A.R.E. represented the community’s drug and alcohol prevention programs in one word. But since it was announced that the Mercer Island Police Department no longer planned to designate a patrol officer for D.A.R.E., city officials have not been able to succinctly label their new approach to prevention.
Nearly a year after the Mercer Island School District conducted a Title IX compliance report, the athletic department is already undergoing transition. Determined to meet all athletic equity standards between girls’ and boys’ sports, Mercer Island High School Athletic Director Craig Olson is speaking to coaches, parents and teachers about changes that must be implemented to meet Title IX law.
