FREE
January 28 - February 3, 2016 Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer
IN THIS
ISSUE
Seaside Bakery to hold talent show, page 3
Outdoorsman and Birch Bay advocate Wolf Bauer dies
Health and Wellness special section, pages 8-9
Bite of Blaine returns next month, page 10
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Arts and Jazz at Blaine High School
By Steve Guntli
(See Bauer, page 2)
s 2015 Blaine High School graduate Matt Kelly plays trumpet with the alumni jazz band during Blaine Fine Arts Association’s 19th annual Arts and Jazz on January 23. See more photos on page 12.
Photo by Steve Guntli
Legislature tackles teachers salary, class sizes By Izumi Hansen, WNPA Olympia Teacher compensation, teacher shortages, the educational opportunity gap and school districts operating levies are all on Washington state legislators’ agenda this session as the state Supreme Court’s McCleary mandate – along with the court’s $100,000 per day contempt citation – loom over the proceedings. The 2016 session began Monday in Olympia. In its January 2012 McCleary v. State of Washington decision, the Supreme Court determined the state was not fulfilling its constitutional requirement to fund basic education
for all students, including compensation for basic education teachers. The court required the state to fulfill its duties and provide annual reports following the legislative session in order to ensure “steady progress” toward a 2017–2018 school year deadline. Basic education, by law, includes the ability to read; write and communicate successfully with a variety of audiences; know the core concepts of a variety of subjects; be able to think analytically, logically and creatively and use technology to do so; and understand how a decision today can influence opportunities tomorrow. The court in 2012 required the state to reduce reliance on local school district excess
Birch Bay on list of affordable winter trips By Oliver Lazenby Though it’s not warm or particularly close to skiing, Birch Bay just landed near the top of a list of the most affordable winter escapes in the western United States. TripAdvisor.com placed Birch Bay at No. 3 on its list, which ranked vacation destinations in the West based on the average cost of a weeklong stay in a
two-bedroom property between December and February. According to the list, it costs an average of $784 per week to stay in a two-bedroom vacation rental in Birch Bay during the winter. Mesa, Arizona topped TripAdvisor’s list with an average weekly cost of $731. The following Northwest destinations round out the top five: Waldport, Oregon; Yach-
ats, Oregon; and Chelan, Washington. The list of 10 features mostly destinations in the mountains, on the coast and in the Southwest. TripAdvisor also ranked the five most affordable destinations in each western state. Cities had to have at least 500 reviews on TripAdvisor.com to qualify as a destination, said TripAdvisor spokesperson Ashlee Centrella, in an email.
tax levies, particularly for funding teachers’ salaries and benefits, and to meet the requirements of a “prototypical school” defined in HB 2776, a bill passed by the Legislature and signed into law in 2010. The 2010 law required reducing class sizes for K-3 students, funding for all transportation, material and operations costs, and providing for all day kindergarten by 2018. The court found the state in contempt of the McCleary orders in September 2014. Legislators responded by passing bills in 2015 that fulfilled these requirements. However, legislators failed to produce (See Schools, page 10)
INSIDE
Wolf Bauer, a legendary outdoorsman, activist and engineer, has died at a care facility on San Juan Island. He was 103. Bauer passed away on January 23, only two days after the Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce hosted a special presentation honoring his accomplishments and local impact. Bauer was the first to suggest the Birch Bay berm project, which will begin construction this fall. Bauer was born in the Bavarian Alps on February 24, 1912. His family immigrated to Seattle when he was 13, and it was there Bauer developed a love of the outdoors. He graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in engineering, but was much more interested in a career in outdoor sports, particularly skiing and mountain climbing. In 1935, Bauer became the first person to summit Mount Rainier from the north side. He went on to teach a highly influential series of mountaineering courses, which introduced Americans to European mountaineering techniques that have since become standard. Mountaineering historian Henry Majors would later call the courses “the single greatest, most influential and most enduring achievement in the history of Northwest climbing,” in The Northwest Mountaineering Journal. Among his pupils were Jim and Lou Whittaker, the first Americans to summit Mount Everest, and Lloyd Anderson, a founder of REI. Bauer co-founded the Mountain Rescue Council, and was president of the organization for its first six years. The council was the first organization of its kind in the United States, and was responsible for dozens of daring mountain rescues. Bauer was also a pioneer in water sports. In the late 1940s, Bauer introduced foldboat kayaking to the United States. Foldboats, small kayaks that can be folded in half for easy transportation, had been popular in Germany but were all but unheard of in
Letters . . . . . . . . . 4 Classifieds . . . . . 11 Police . . . . . . . . . 14 Coming Up . . . . . 14 Tides . . . . . . . . . . 14
TheNorthernLight.com TheNorthernLight
@TNLreporter
@PointRobertsPress