Congrats! Class of 2009!

Vashon High School students were accepted to the following colleges this year:

American University, DC
Bellevue College
Brigham Young University, Idaho
California College of the Arts
California Polytechnic State University
Central Washington University
Chapman University
Colgate University
Colorado College
Cornish College of the Arts
Cuesta College
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
Evergreen State College
George Washington University
Georgetown University
Goucher College
Green River Community College
Lewis and Clark College
Loyola Marymount University
Macalester College
Montana State University
North Idaho College
Occidental College
Olympic College
Rhode Island School of Design
Santa Barbara City College
Seattle Central Community College
Seattle University
Shoreline Community College
South Seattle Community College
Tacoma Community College
University of Puget Sound
University of Arizona
University of LaVerne
University of Washington
University of Washington, Honors
Vassar College
Washington State University
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Western Washington University
Western Washington University, Honors
Whatcom Community College
Whitman College
Wyotech

Bountious basil

Just hit the hot weather plant start sale at the high school today. For those of you who missed my pro-vocational education rave and the previous plant sale for cool weather plants, by all means here it is.

First, it was roasting hot in that green house and I am sure the kids wanted to be squirting hoses around but, again, they were on their best behavior scuttling around, showing us where we could find the peppers, basil and tomatoes galore.

Wow! That was some turn out! Impressive, robust starts very reasonably priced.

I have never seen a more healthy crop of basil starts in my life. A buck each!!!! $1.00 for a plant I just spent $3 over the weekend for. Sheesh!

For those that know, Basil is notoriously hard to start from seed unless you have a greenhouse and perfectly stable conditions. Basil is not easily started in the window sill with the dogs, cats, kids, curtains messing up the conditions. I have long stopped trying and routinely buy them in starts each year.

My GGF was feeling all failure-ish because her basil didn't happen this year. I assured her that she is already super-human with the sheep, the garden, the kid, the chickens and the farmstand. And, if her basil starts worked out too I would have saddly had to feel even more inadequate!

No fear! None of hers came out and there was enough beautiful basil starts to make everyone happy today at the sale.

I brainstormed a little with the horticulture teacher. Her and the kids have planted up a huge victory garden and was wondering how to open it up for community events during the summer. I always found it ironic that the best months for the garden the kids were off from school. So, after all their hard work in the spring, they never really gets to be rewarded for it.

Maybe the summer kids YMCA program could come up and do some weeding and be able to harvest some of the veggies to eat? Maybe they could promote it for summer parties and weddings? Maybe they could offer produce for weekly garden help to folks who don't have a garden or live in apartments?

There are so many ways a garden can grow. And, watching those kids take it on just reminds me that it really should be a community activity.

These kids are terrific...

Speaking of our wonderful high school kids, check out the Vashon High School award winning newspaper, The Riptide. Now, I see they have this great blog.

This may seem unbelievable but these Vashon teenagers ROCK. I'm repeatedly amazed at the thoughtful, mature, confidence. Not everybody, all the time, of course. But, for the most part, yes, these are really good kids.

It was one of the first things I notice when we moved here. Hard to explain actually but the teenagers were still kids somehow. There was still some innocence there.

Jake coaches the Boy's High School Tennis team and he agrees. There is something about these kids. A unique recipe of growing up in a small town with lots of natural beauty, enjoying many, many years of parental involvement, benefiting from all the committed educators, artists and coaches who generously devote countless hours and stir it all up in a community that supports them and has been a village from the start.

Yes, it is a little bit of magic.

Progress or deciding to do something

You should have seen the gathering; a Middle School lunch room with lots and lots of chairs, microphone, big powerpoint screen. They were ready for a wowzer of a school board meeting, that's for sure, and gradually over 100 people showed up. An impressive turn out on a chilly and wet Thursday night.

The Vashon School Board decided to make a bold and confident step. After various boards spent over 20 years talking about it, they have approved going forward with a Capitol Bond; a $75.5 million honey that has created quite a stir in our little town. This bond, if approved by a 60% vote next spring, will quite literally change the face of Vashon High School for many years to come. It will solve many of the nagging, unhealthy and derelict problems that face our current buildings and move forward on a decision that has, quite literally, festered for generations. If you are interested, check this out.

The first hurrah really has to go to Bob, Oz and Terry. Kathy and Laura came along eventually and Dan abstained. Thank you all for your service to our community and to all the thankless work that you do for our schools.

Vashon folks of all ages and backgrounds came out in a full throated affirmation for this investment in the our children's future. People were here to walk the walk. It was an emotional night but very feel goody. People seemed to have really looked inside themselves and consciously decided to stand for investing in our kids future. Many people spoke; thoughtful, profound and nobel sentiments were expressed.

I was wondering if the heightened mood and sentiment has anything to do with our recent presidential contest. It seems that recent election still resonates. So many of us really stopped and thought about what we really are about and what you wanted to align ourselves with. Our community, perhaps still with a little Obama buzz , has decided, confidentially, to move forward. The right direction for all the right reasons. A pretty damn wonderful thing to see.

We're on the way to the ballot in Feb, maybe March. Interestingly, this vote will be the first one since Washington State will go to an all absentee vote. I wonder how that will effect the vote? We need about 2,000 voters to approve this thing. It goes without saying about the bad timing, but I am remaining confident. We'll have to wait and see.

And, there is an interesting economic irony; due to the downturn we stand to save some money by doing the project now. So, the crappy economy is making our project less expensive (!) or as I have decided to think of it as stimulating the local economy.

I'll keep you posted.