The city of Newcastle honored a group Feb. 26 that far too often goes unnoticed — volunteers.

Each year, volunteers devote countless hours to city events. It is volunteers that help plan summer activities, care and advocate for the city’s vast trail network and protect Newcastle’s history.

About 50 volunteers and summer event sponsor representatives gathered at The Golf Club at Newcastle Feb. 26, where they were treated to snacks, an orchestra and a personal thank you from Newcastle Mayor Steve Buri and City Manager Rob Wyman.

Volunteerism is a big part of what makes Newcastle one of the best small cities in the country. So, here’s a special shout out to some of the groups and people that willingly offer their time to better the city:

• Community Activities Commission — Diane Lewis, Linda Newing, Zaquis Ross, Russ Segner, Jim Price and Victoria Sandoval, and past members Angela Ursino and Victoria Hupf
• Planning Commission — Karin Blakely, Elizabeth Thompson, Orville McDonald, Jon Simpson, Rob Lemmon, Allen Dauterman and Thomas Magers
• Boy Scout Troops 499, 577 and 626
• Student volunteers from Hazen High, Liberty High, Maywood Middle and McKnight Middle schools
• Newcastle Trails — Garry Kampen, Peggy Price
• Newcastle Weed Warriors — Grace Stiller
• Newcastle Historical Society
• Little Rhody Park neighborhood group
• Newcastle Days car show planning committee
• Earth Day planning committee
• Newcastle Chamber of Commerce Board

The event also honored the following sponsors that contributed to city events over the summer:

• AvalonBay — Brian Fritz
• Waste Management — David Della
• Regency Newcastle — John Kotalick
• The Golf Club at Newcastle — David Uchida
• Coal Creek Family YMCA — Sara Biancofiori
• Boeing Employees Credit Union — Molly Andrews
• AT&T — Carol Tagayun
• UW/Valley Medical Center — Liz Nolan
• Animal Hospital of Newport Hills — Kent Thomazin
• HomeStreet Bank – Travis Monen
• KeyBank — Jimmy Ng
• Apple Physical Therapy — Randy Johnson

By Greg Farrar
Deputy Dave Montalvo, Liberty resource officer, is greeted warmly by a visiting graduate near the grandstand student section as he patrols a Sept. 12 football game.

Deputy Dave Montalvo has had his fair share of assignments in a 27-year career with the King County Sheriff’s Office.

He spent time on the SWAT team; he taught new recruits as a master police officer; he served on motorcycle patrol; and he also worked with a traffic enforcement unit.

But he has truly found his home in the south end of the Issaquah School District where, for the past 12 years, Montalvo has served as the school resource officer at Liberty High, Maywood Middle and surrounding elementary schools.

“This is by far, in my opinion, the best job that anybody can have, because you get to work with the kids and make a difference,” he said.

Students, staff and parents have for years praised Montalvo’s warm and likable demeanor, but now the rest of the state knows how special he is, after the Washington School Safety Organization named him the state’s 2013-2014 School Security Officer of the Year.

It’s not a surprise he won. It’s more of a surprise that he hadn’t yet won, said former Liberty administrator Ed Marcoe, who led the effort to get Montalvo considered for the award. He gathered nomination forms and passed them out to Liberty staff, parents and students.

“We had, I’m going to say, close to 75 nomination forms supporting him,” Marcoe said.

Montalvo’s day consists of walking — a lot of walking. He estimates he walks the Liberty campus 15-20 times a day, making sure everything is safe and secure. He also helps teach Fourth Amendment rights in the school’s civics class and demonstrates the dangers of drinking and driving in the driver’s education class.

He investigates student thefts of phones and personal items, makes sure kids aren’t speeding on the arterials or parking illegally, and helps with discipline issues when needed.

Montalvo is responsible for most of the south end of the district, so he also makes time to visit Maywood Middle School and Newcastle, Apollo, Briarwood and Maple Hills elementary schools, where he interacts with students and monitors crosswalks.

“I try to get over there a couple times a day as well, to make sure they know I’m watching out for them as well,” he said.

Liberty visitors will often see his King County Sheriff Office car parked in front of the school, standing as a comfortable symbol of the school’s security.

Montalvo is much more than a school resource officer. He’s a teacher, a mentor, a father figure and a support system for every student he protects.

“He just has that charisma with the kids,” Marcoe said. “Kids feel at ease with him and can talk to him. That’s what you want in an SRO. You want that protection, but you also want to be able to go to somebody and tell them anything.”

He has a strong open-door policy, so it’s not rare to see a consistent parade of students, both current and former, coming to him for guidance or just stopping to say hi.

Montalvo’s connection to Liberty is unlike any Principal Josh Almy has seen in his 20-year education career, he said.

“He takes such a special interest in the success and safety of the kids and community, it really is remarkable,” Almy said. “He not only does his job to the fullest, but spends much of his personal time attending events and taking an interest in the betterment of our school. He knows parents, students and staff by name, and will always go the extra mile for any Patriot that could benefit from his assistance.”

Montalvo, who makes his home in Maple Valley, admits that he now bleeds silver, green and blue, and praises Liberty as “the gem of the district.” Fans will often see him on the sidelines cheering on the Liberty student athletes or at graduation celebrating the seniors.

His favorite part of the job is interacting with kids. He gets a chance to see them literally grow up in front of his eyes, from troublesome freshmen making rash choices to, hopefully, more mature seniors.

“It’s fun when they look back at it and say, ‘I made some dumb choices when I was younger,’ and I go, ‘We all do. We were all young,’” Montalvo said.

The plaque he received for the state honor now sits proudly in his Liberty office, though he spends little time there. Montalvo credits the award to the students and staff, saying the well-behaved Patriots’ student body simply makes him look good.

“In our line of business, a lot of times we don’t see the best of people,” Montalvo said. “But if you can turn one of those troublemakers around and make a difference, it’s amazing how that feels.”

Liberty High School’s Women’s Concert Chorale and the Liberty Singers mixed choir both received superior ratings and took first place in their divisions at the recent Music in the Parks competition in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Both groups were recognized for their kindness and inclusive attitudes toward other singers. After the thrill of the competition, students wound down with a fun afternoon at the Silverwood Theme Park.

The singers are under the direction of Robin Wood, who spent many years at Newcastle Elementary School before taking over the Maywood Middle School and Liberty choirs.

Seven Maywood students, plus one from a Marysville school to round out the team, combined to solve the cube faster than all but one team.

Contributed
Maywood Middle School team members (from left) Ben Royce, Cameron Chadd, Andrew Chappelle, Shelby Reese, Matt Barta, Will Slaton, Spencer Slaton and Davan Hwang are whizzes with the Rubik’s Cube, taking second place at the 2014 ‘You CAN do the Rubik’s Cube’ competition June 7.

“Solving the cube requires a great deal of mathematical patterning and problem solving,” Maywood teacher Ron Ciraulo said. “Solving them quickly requires combining all those skills with physical dexterity and focused attention.”

Ben Royce and Davan Hwang led the team, solving their puzzles in just 30 seconds. Shelby Reese, Will Slaton, Spencer Slaton, Matt Barta and Andrew Chappelle were the other Maywood competitors.

“It’s truly a sight to behold watching them work so quickly,” Ciraulo said.

The Issaquah School District is wasting no time when it comes to putting its recently-approved $219 million bond dollars into action.

The school board reviewed a preliminary schedule of projects and timeline for school construction and other district upgrades at its May 9 meeting. Some projects could begin as soon as July and others extend through the end of 2019.

“Somebody has to be first, and somebody has to be last,” said Jacob Kuper, chief operations officer for the district.

Phase 2 construction of Liberty High School and Phase 2 at Maywood Middle School are first in line with finishes projected by the end of 2013. At the caboose of the tentative timeline is the reconstruction of Sunny Hills Elementary School, which wouldn’t finish until December 2018.

Construction to improve Skyline High School’s stadium would begin April 2013 and run through September 2014. As a result, Skyline’s football team is likely to play away games for the entire 2013 season. Issaquah High School will have the same problem a few years later when its stadium remodel takes place from April 2016 to August 2017.

This summer, the district hopes to install artificial turf on the athletic fields at Beaver Lake and Maywood middle schools. It would then install turf fields at Pine Lake and Pacific Cascade middle schools the following summer.

“We didn’t want to take all the fields out over the course of the summer because it would be a huge impact on the community,” said Steve Crawford, director of capital projects for the district.

The tentative schedule only listed major projects, with repairs and other smaller projects bundled together to be done over the next seven years and possibly beyond.

“This is a draft schedule, subject to change,” said Kuper. “When you are talking about 80 percent of a decade, there are going to be changes.”

He and Crawford explained that there are a number of factors that influence the timeline, like permitting with different jurisdictions and whether or not construction is located in rural or urban areas.

A different contracting method

Crawford and Kuper also suggested using an alternative contracting method for the more complex project of relocating Issaquah Middle School, Clark Elementary School and Tiger Mountain High School. The method, General Contractor Construction Management, would replace the traditional bidding process.

Instead, the district would bring in a general contractor early on in the design phase to be a part of the multi-phase project throughout. By doing so, Crawford said the district would get the contractor’s expertise on things like materials and efficiencies. He said the district would negotiate costs with the contractor.

“I think there is the potential to save some money…we will know earlier in the process where the big costs are,” said Crawford.

Another area where it could save money, he said, is by potentially reducing delays. The threat of delays would be stronger, he explained, if three separate contractor bids are accepted for three different phases.

In this case, one general contractor would be responsible for the whole project. Ideally, each phase, including the relocation of three different student bodies, would be better synchronized if one firm is managing the entire process.

“The advantage is to shorten the timeline,” said Crawford.

The district’s preliminary timeline includes two possible schedules for the Issaquah, Clark and Tiger Mountain project. The first, using the traditional bidding method, estimates that the project would begin this month with its design and permitting phase and continue through the beginning of 2017. The target move-in date for students would be August 2016.

The second schedule, using one general contractor, would also start this month with early designs and permitting. Construction would finish at the beginning of 2016 with students set to be in their new facilities by August 2015.

District officials have not made a final decision yet and Kuper said that at this point and time, both avenues – going the traditional bidding route or using its alternative – are still open.

While Washington school districts are allowed to pursue the latter option, this would be the first time that the Issaquah School District does so.

First, however, the district must get approval from the state. Washington’s Capital Projects Advisory Review Board is expected to review the district’s projects’ proposals later this month or in June.

No-bid contracts would still be competitive

Should Issaquah School District officials decide to use the general contractor construction method, they must still abide by state requirements for how the general contractor is picked. Under state law, the contractor must be hired through a competitive process that involves the district publicly posting that it is looking for proposals.

The call for proposals has to include details such as a description of the project, reasons for using this method in the first place and a description of how proposals will be scored. The state also has guidelines for how the proposals are evaluated, including requiring a committee to do the evaluating. The applicants would be judged on their reputation, workload and the amount of work their firm could do itself. Finalists would need to submit a more detailed proposal, which would include an estimated maximum cost.

To make the final choice, those proposals would then have to be opened and read publicly. The public would also then get the chance to see how the finalists were scored.

Learn more about guidelines for capital projects at www.ga.wa.gov/cparb/.

As the next major step to align each of the three high schools schedules in the Issaquah School District, administrators encourage parents and students to become involved with the Liberty High School Schedule Committee that will be formed this month.

The parent and student application and a timeline of the project are available online now.

Applications are due to Kathy Schroeder in Liberty’s main office by May 18, and parents of Maywood Middle School and Liberty students are especially encouraged to apply.

The school will continue with the same eight-period schedule for the 2012-13 school year. Issaquah and Skyline high schools have a six-period daily schedule in place, while Liberty has eight.

ISD Superintendent Steve Rasmussen required action on the topic after a high school scheduling committee was formed last year to take on and rectify problems associated with the schedules.

In the scheduling committee’s final report, two main issues emerged: the need to increase student and teacher interaction time at Liberty and provide student access to more courses throughout the school year, especially at Issaquah and Skyline.

Because of Liberty’s eight?period block schedule, it is approximately 24 hours under the requirement and approximately 36 hours below Issaquah and Skyline High Schools, which have six period schedules, Rasmussen wrote in a statement to students, staff and parents in January.

Rasmussen outlined the beginning of the 2013-14 school year as the final date for implementation on a new schedule. The Liberty schedule committee will meet between September and November and submit a new schedule proposal to Rasmussen on Nov. 7.

“The goal of a common schedule is important because it will allow sharing of resources, an improved educational experience, standardized professional development and comparable expectations around pacing and instruction, and potential for increased opportunities for all students to access courses and programs that do not exist in a student’s home school,” he stated.

There are several themes that come up over and over as backers and school officials talk about the prospect of placing artificial turf on the fields of each of the five Issaquah School District middle schools, including Maywood Middle School.

The upcoming bond package would provide the middle schools with rubberized outdoor running tracks if voters decide to approve the $219 million capital improvement plan on April 17.

District officials hope to install the turf and tracks at a cost of $1.5 million per school, not counting fields that could go in at a transplanted Issaquah Middle School.

The IMS fields would be added after the school is rebuilt; associated costs are not specifically spelled out in the district’s bond package.

The most common sentiment is artificial-turf fields could be used far more often than the current natural-turf models. According to the bond’s backers and school administrators, the reason is obvious — it rains here and often leaves the natural-turf fields unusable.

“Fields are taken out of service for weeks at a time,” said Lesley Austin, co-chairwoman of Volunteers for Issaquah Schools, the nonprofit group promoting the school bond issue.

With artificial turf in place, the fields could see up to five times the number of practices and games, according to Sara Niegowski, district director of communications. That assertion was repeated by many others.

“Speaking bluntly, our field is in pretty poor condition,” said Ann Swiftney, IMS athletic director.

Flooding problems are common. Swiftney cited a recent soccer game that  was cancelled because of field conditions. Maywood Middle School Principal Jason Morse said much the same.

“The field is really the classroom for our physical education classes,” he said, adding the school has some 400 to 600 students taking P.E. each day.

In winter, the Maywood field is little more than an inaccessible mud pit, he added.

“You step onto the field and you sink in a couple of inches,” Morse said.

Another repeated argument is that artificial turf would save the district significant maintenance dollars as opposed to natural-turf fields. Niegowski put the amount at about $30,000 per year per school for a total of about $150,000 a year district wide.

If the fields end up seeing more use, one more common contention is that the artificial turf will end up paying for itself over time, partly through reduced maintenance costs but also through added fees collected due to additional use by community groups.

“It’s going to be an added resource for everyone,” Swiftney said.

How much extra use the fields would receive is hard to say.

City of Issaquah spokeswoman Autumn Monahan declined to speculate on how much more the city Parks and Recreation Department might use the artificial turf fields, saying there would have to be a new deal worked out between the schools and the city. Local youth leagues contacted did not respond to requests for comment, but school officials said the fields are currently used by baseball, football, soccer and lacrosse organizations.

Morse said football league use causes considerable wear and tear to the existing natural-turf field at Maywood. He added that while he would welcome more use of revamped fields by the community, his top priority is his students.

“I’m really looking forward to the access it’s going to provide my P.E. students and teachers,” he said.

While much discussion focused on the fields, Morse and Swiftney also said the rubberized running tracks would be an asset as well. Teams regularly use brooms to sweep water off of the tracks, Morse said. Swiftney said she often loses use of a running lane to flooding. And both said the cinder tracks can be a safety hazard. A fall on the track can be serious, Swiftney said.

“It can tear you up pretty badly,” she added.

Nate Jarvis completed a hat-trick to lead Liberty to its first boys high school lacrosse win of the season with an 11 – 5 defeat of Klahowya on Saturday at Maywood Middle School in Renton.

Sam Dodt, Colin Ross and Colin Larson all netted a pair of goals and Roland Deex had eight saves and six ground balls for Liberty in the win.

Liberty (1-2-0) next faces Redmond (0-1-0) at 7 p.m. March 21 at Liberty High School.

Klahowya (0-1-0) next faces Gig Harbor (2-1-0), Tuesday, March 20, in a 5 p.m. start at Central Kitsap Junior High.

Scoring

Liberty 11, Klahoywa 5 (Nate Jarvis, L, 3 goals and 2 ground balls; Sam Dodt, L, 2 goals 3 assists 8 ground balls; Colin Ross, L, 2 goals, 3 assists, 4 ground balls; Colin Larson, L, 2 goals and 5 ground balls; Jeff Arnevick, L, 1 goal and 4 ground balls; Peter Disney, L, 1 goal and 2 ground balls; Wyatt Johnson, L, 1 assist and 7 ground balls; Roland Deex, L,  8 saves, 6 ground balls)

By Michele McKee Rachel McKee (left) and Amit Furman receive district-level recognition for their artwork submitted in the National PTA Reflections Program.

As Rachel McKee was searching for inspiration for an entry for her school’s PTA Reflections art contest, she realized she had to look no further than where she spends a lot of her free time — her select basketball team.

With this year’s theme surrounding what “Diversity Means” to each student, she knew she wanted to represent the sense of camaraderie and togetherness on the team.

She grabbed a camera and some friends from the team and asked them to pose, hand to hand.

“I used a variety of skin colors to show that we can all work together and lend a helping hand,” she said. “Some people believe that if we look different, we are different. I believe we are all the same internally.”

McKee, 12, joins fellow students Amit Furman and Katrina Filer, of Maywood Middle School, to be honored at the district level for artwork they submitted for the National PTA Reflections Program Contest — a more than 40-year old program offered throughout the country to inspire youths to express their creativity and talent in a variety of artistic means.

Their entries will move on to the state competition, McKee said, where they will be judged in Spokane in May for further consideration for the national contest.

Two Liberty High School students, Kate Simmons and Kiera Stevens, were also chosen to compete at the state level.

The 12 Maywood students selected from the pool of the school’s contestants for the district level were Laurie Willoughby, Jyotsna Kuramkote, Filer, Taylor Kaszycki, Ben Poile, McKee, Furman, Brittany Toombs, Mosiana Piutau, Sophia Lindstrom, Kelsie Gardner and Emily Chun.

McKee said she used Photoshop to highlight the diversity of the world we live in.

“My photo reflects a spectrum of colored skin holding each other’s wrists to show that together we are one,” she said. “I chose to put different colors in the background of the photo to reflect that the world is full of color.”

Furman’s interpretation of the theme was a drawing of two contrasting colored hands joining at the thumbs to symbolize togetherness.

She said she painted one hand with cool colors and one hand in warm colors, while the background is actual various skin tones.

The focus is on the contrasting colored hands to show that color shouldn’t matter, Furman said.

“We can all make this world a better place if we looked past the shades we were born with and focused on our inner colors,” she said. “We can learn from each other’s inner differences by not judging from the outside in.”

On the Web

Go to www.ptareflections.org to learn more about the 40-year-old PTA Reflections program.