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Parents challenge report cards

Parents at Alternative School #1, a kindergarten-8th grade school in the Northgate area, announced in June that they would go to court to stop to the use of the School District's new report cards at their facility.

A.S. #1 was founded in 1969 by parents who wanted their kids in an experimental, hands-on learning environment where children wouldn't be labeled.

"This has been an ungraded environment for 34 years ... because that's what we created it to be," said Principal Ron Snyder. He added that student performance at A.S. #1 is already evaluated, just not with the School District's method.

Lynn Steinberg, a spokeswoman for the School District, said the report cards, which were years in development, would provide a "common set of indicators" as to whether or not kids are meeting academic standards and on track to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) test, a requirement for graduation in 2008.

AS #1 is located at 11530 12th Ave. NE.

Students make time capsule

In June, students at Meridian Elementary School in Wallingford marked the close of the school's 25th anniversary year by assembling a time capsule. The capsule will be buried later in the year on the grounds of the Good Shepherd Center where the school is located.

The capsule contains many signs of our times including current maps, coins, stamps, newspapers, lists of popular books, CDs, photos, favorite candy and "What It Means to Be An American" essays.

The Meridian School, located at 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., is a private, independent elementary school with 170 students.

NSCC election results

North Seattle Community College held its Associated Student Body elections in late May. The-Anh Nguyen beat-out two other candidates to win the race for ASB president for the 2002-2003 school year. Nguyen succeeds this past year's ASB president, Chris Camfield.

Also elected in uncontested races to ASB posts for the coming school year were Amber Upton (vice president), Crystal Mirth (treasurer) and Thuc Hoang Thach (diversity representative). No one ran for ASB manager/secretary or any of the five ASB council positions. The newly elected officers will either hire students for those slots or hold a special election in the fall.

A total of 192 ballots were cast from NSCC's 8,000 students. While that may seem a small number, it exceeds the 75 voters who turned out for the college's ASB elections last year. Earlier this year, NSCC considered canceling this year's ASB elections due to the chronically poor voter turnout, but backed off from that plan after NSCC student Skip Knox challenged the legality of that decision. School officials backed off from that plan after Knox's crusade gained support from NSCC's student paper, The Polaris.

NSCC is located at 9600 College Way N.