For more information or updates, visit Highline’s website here: http://www.highlineschools.org/Pages/Home.aspx

Submission date is Monday, January 23, 2012, from 2-5:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Citizen Emergency Response Team (CERT) training is intended to teach residents, community organizations or workplaces the basics of preparation and response skills between emergency services and the people they serve, and the next training session starts March 15.

Class times run Thursday evenings from 6 p.m to 9 p.m. at SeaTac City Hall, located at 4800 S. 188th Street.

Training sessions are held twice a year in the spring and fall, and require approximately 20 hours to complete. There is a minimal fee for tools supplied to students, enabling them to build their own emergency response kit.

For more information or to register, contact Community Service Officer Mechee Burnett at (206) 973-4917 or fill out an application (PDF file) and mail it to:

SeaTac Police Services
RE: CERT Training
4800 S. 188 St.
SeaTac, WA 98188

Here’s more info:

CERT Classes
The training is a Citizen Corp and FEMA supported curriculum and promotes a partnering effort between emergency services and the people they serve.The goal is for emergency personnel to train members of neighborhoods, community organizations, or workplaces in basic preparation and response skills. CERT members are then integrated into the emergency response capability for their area.

Contact Us
For more information or to register for CERT, contact Community Service Officer Mechee Burnett at (206) 973-4917 or fill out an application and mail it to:

SeaTac Police Services
RE: CERT Training
4800 S. 188 St.
SeaTac, WA 98188

Training Sessions
The training sessions are held twice a year in the spring and fall. The sessions require approximately 20 hours to complete. There is a minimal fee for tools supplied to students, enabling them to build their own emergency response kit.

The next CERT training will begin Marc 15, 2012 (schedule of classes)

SeaTac City Hall
4800 S 188th Street
SeaTac, Washington

Training Topics
Training is designed to cover the following:

• Disaster preparedness
• Fire safety
• Disaster medical operations
• Triage
• Treating life threatening injuries
• Assessment, treatment, and hygiene
• Light search and rescue
• Team organization
• Disaster psychology
• Terrorism and CERT
• Practical final exercise

Burien’s Environmental Science Center (ESC) will be holding free and family-friendly Moonlight Beach Walks on Saturdays at Seahurst beach, starting Dec. 10th and again on Jan. 21st from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Here’s more from a press release:

Local naturalists are volunteering their time to help guide visitors in discovering the unique marine life that lives in the intertidal zone. Considered a marine reserve, the rock strewn beach provides vital habitat for creatures such as purple sea stars, burrowing sea cucumbers, Dungeness crabs, moon snails, and aggregating sea anemones plus an abundance of seaweeds. These walks are a unique opportunity to see Seahurst’s beach at low tide and in the dark. When the tide goes out during the day most of the creatures on the beach go with it or burrow under something. But at night, they stay on the beach. Visitors should bring reliable flashlights to explore the nooks and crannies of the large rocks. Remember that you’re in their house, so tread gently. The goal is to Do No Harm.

This year’s walk promises a new treat to returning beach explorers – a brand new warm building! Our new center is at Seahurst beach: 2400 Southwest 140th Street in Burien. Park in the lower or upper lot and walk along the trail that runs north from the turning circle at the lower parking lot. Visitors should check-in at the center for some pre-beach activities and cider, hot chocolate or coffee. Activities include a Matisse themed art project on sea life and a microscope lab with plankton to identify.

Please make sure to dress warmly with hats, gloves, and warm coats. Also, wear rubber shoes so that you can wade out into the ankle-deep water around the tide pools. And please practice beach etiquette:

DO NO HARM

1. Be extra careful where you step so you don’t step on animals or their homes.
2. When you want to look more closely at a creature, bend over and look rather than picking it up. Leave animals where you find them. Don’t move them to a new home!
3. Touch plants and animals gently with one wet finger. Animals living on the beach and in the water are cold and wet, your fingers are warm and dry. Simply touching a plant or animal may be enough to injure or kill it.
4. If you want to look under a rock, be gentle. Turning over a rock can be like someone turning on a bright light in your bedroom in the middle of the night. Lift it slowly and gently. When you’re done the rock needs to be gently returned to its original position.

SAVE THE CHILDREN
Leave all shells and animals on the beach rather than taking them home. Shells and rocks need to be left on the beach because they provide a home for the next generation, an animal’s children, to live on.

For more information about this event, contact Jennifer Dumlao at outreach@envsciencecenter.org or call 206-248-4266.

For more information about the Environmental Science Center visit www.envsciencecenter.org.

Our friends at the Highline School District want our Readers to know that CHOICE Academy is now accepting applications for Fall enrollment for 2012, and is holding an Information Night on Thursday, Dec. 1st.

Highline CHOICE Academy is a small, smart and safe learning community located at 18367 8th Ave South in Burien.

Seats are available in grades 7 through 10.

CHOICE is a Fully Accredited, Award Winning and free public school.

According to a brochure (PDF file):

CHOICE Academy is a unique small school for students in grades 7 through 12, offering core academics in a highly personalized environment.

CHOICE Academy is open to any student living within Highline Public Schools boundaries.

Here are the details:

WHAT: CHOICE Academy Information Night.

WHEN: Thursday, Dec. 1 from 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: CHOICE’s Woodside Campus at 18367 8th Ave South, Burien WA 98148; (206) 631-7630.

INFO: Early Decision Applications are due on Fridays, Dec. 9, & Feb. 3. 2012 (First Come, First Serve)

For more information, check their website: http://choiceacademy.weebly.com/, or call (206) 631-7630.

“A Washington State School of Distinction”

“Best kept secret in Highline”

1932 Highline High School Championship basketball team. Photo courtesy Highline Historical Society.

The Highline Historical Society is inviting the public to a free program celebrating memories of sports teams in the Highline area from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 20th at SeaTac City Hall.

Retired Tyee varsity baseball coach Walt Edmiston will be on a special guest panel that also will include Kaija Lietuvietis (who taught PE at both Highline and Tyee High Schools and coached girls swimming at Tyee), Phyllis Mitchell (who has written extensively about church league basketball in the Highline area), and Gordie Shaw (who was involved with Highline Little League). The program will be moderated by former Highline School District Superintendent Kent Matheson.

Former players, coaches, and fans are warmly welcomed to come ask questions of the panelists, and share their own memories and memorabilia.

The program will take place Sunday, November 20, from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. at SeaTac City Hall, located at 4800 S 188th Street in SeaTac.

A short annual meeting will precede the program.

For more information on the Highline Historical Society and its activities, visit www.highlinehistory.org.

On March 14, 1911, Governor Marion E. Hay (1865-1933) signs legislation authorizing the establishment of public port districts. The Port District Act, which allows citizens to end private monopoly control of urban harbors, is a victory for progressive and populist reformers then at the height of their influence in Washington. Voters in Seattle and Grays Harbor will create the first two port districts later that year and many more will be established around the state in succeeding years.

Before statehood, most harbor improvements in Washington were privately owned. Although the 1889 state constitution preserved all remaining tidelands in public ownership, many critical port facilities were already in private hands, allowing those who controlled them to monopolize key transportation routes and set prices accordingly.

…

Progressives were at the height of their strength in the 1911 legislative session, which enacted numerous progressive reforms. And by then even much of the state’s conservative business establishment had grown tired of the railroad stranglehold on the harbors on which the state’s trade and commerce depended. Governor Hay called on the legislature to “encourage all improvements of harbors and the acquisition of public docks and wharfs” (1911 Senate Journal), and legislators did.

The state House of Representative passed the Port District Act on March 3, 1911, and the Senate followed suit six days later. Governor Hay signed the measure into law on March 14, 1911.

Seattle voters were the first to take advantage of the new law. On September 5, 1911, they approved the Port of Seattle and elected Hiram M. Chittenden (1858-1917), Robert Bridges (1861-1921), and Charles E. Remsberg as port commissioners (a position that by statute was unpaid).  [Note: according to a recent report in Seattle Magazine, Port commissioners are now paid $6000 each year.]

The Port has put together a pretty nifty educational site as part of its centennial celebrations.  It’s well worth a browse.  As the site puts it,

Since 1911, the Port of Seattle has grown from a fledgling harbor to a multi-faceted organization that runs a world-class seaport and international airport, supports industries as diverse as tourism and commercial fishing, is a key partner in building road and rail infrastructure, and is committed to being a national leader in environmental and sustainability programs.

This week, the Port issued a press release noting that it “generates nearly 200,000 jobs statewide and $867 million in state and local tax revenues.” Governor Gregoire declared Monday, September 5, “Port of Seattle Day” in Washington.

The next public celebration of the Centennial is coming up September 17 as part of the  23rd Annual Fishermen’s Fall Festival sponsored by the Fishermen’s Terminal Tenant’s Association.

We’ve embedded the Port’s half-hour documentary about the Centennial below:

The Highline Historical Society (we’re members – join here) is seeking area residents to share their memories of the 9/11 tragedy on the weekend of Sept. 10th and 11th.

They’ll be videotaping short oral histories at two events – here’s more from an email we received:

In remembrance of the events of 9/11/2001, the Highline Historical Society will be videotaping short oral histories of first responders and the general public at two events on the weekend of September 10 – 11:

• Saturday, September 10: the Historical Society will be at the Burien Fire Station, 15100 8th Avenue SW in Burien, from 10 AM to Noon.
• Sunday, September 11: the Society will be at the SeaTac Fire Station, 2929 S 200th Street in SeaTac, from 1 – 3 PM.

People who wish to share their memories of where they were a decade ago and how they reacted when they heard about the airliners that had been flown into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon are invited to stop by and be videotaped.

These memories will then become a permanent part of the Highline Historical Society’s collections.

For more information on the Highline Historical Society and its activities, visit www.highlinehistory.org.

Available services do not meet even the basic needs of residents in the areas of health, employment, attainable housing, and nutrition Many households are immigrant families with children A 70%+ percentage of students enrolled in the federal lunch program.

The annual SeaTac Back to School Resource Fair provides backpacks, basic school supplies such as scissors, ringed binders, calculators, paper, and composition books.  And food for 800 people!

We are committed to providing the public with high quality recreation programs. Our residents and patrons are important to us and we feel they deserve quality at all times. We are so confident that our recreation classes are high quality that we are backing them with a Satisfaction Guaranteed Policy. If you are not satisfied you can repeat that class at no charge, receive full credit that can be applied to any recreation class or receive a full refund.