In preparation for a $3.5 million budgetary shortfall, the Lake Washington School District has been working on potential budget adjustments for the 2006-07 school year since February.A complete proposed budget was presented at the June 26 school board meeting. The board must formally adopt a budget in August; however, it can still make changes to this plan.The operating budget plan spares the classrooms and schools as much as possible. It involves budget reductions, some fee increases and charging some expenses to different accounts. Reductions are primarily to central office department budgets.To pay for expected increases in expenses, the district had to find more than $3.5 million, by either decreasing expenses or increasing revenues. Either approach will work to balance a budget.
As a management consultant focused upon assisting my clients to higher measurable levels of profitability, productivity and stakeholder value, I am often confronted with organizations that have fallen into disarray, much to the chagrin of owners, stakeholders and discouraged clients /customers.Here is a checklist of 10 ways to ruin a perfectly good business that might prove helpful as you consider your own firm and the efforts you make to create an annuity for your life. I have presented the checklist in reverse order; see how you do!
Fire is just too horrible to shirk complete and total accountability for its devastating consequences. And I'm not talking about the recent Kirkland murders that were allegedly covered up with arson. I'm talking about fires that are completely avoidable that are started by negligence, ignorance, youth and too often: fireworks. I just don't get fireworks. Bottle rockets, cherry bombs, M-80s, Roman candles and other military-power wannabes set houses on fire and blow off fingers and hands of children who don't know any better. Children who can walk up to their choice of firework stand - which seem to appear like cockroaches in the dead of night - and spend to their heart's content. (By law, purchasers must be 16 with a photo ID. Is this enforced?) And how can three fireworks stands be allowed to take up residence in a two-block radius just over the northern border of Kirkland? It's irresponsible.
Often called the "economic engine" of Kirkland, the entire Totem Lake neighborhood is experiencing an exciting revitalization. All around us are signs of the growth and rebirth of our neighborhood. The most visible sign is the rising construction of your new emergency department and patient facility at Evergreen Healthcare. I say your new buildings, because as a public hospital, these buildings really belong to you, the residents of King County Public Hospital District No. 2.It was because of your strong support of our bond levy that this project is possible, and I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you all again for that support!
What happened on July 17 is almost impossible to process. When news first broke that a fire had claimed the lives of four people, just about everyone had a deeply emotional and gut wrenching response. When we later learned that the victims, including two children, had been brutally murdered and that the fire had been an attempt to cover up the crime, the level of shock and horror reached nearly unimaginable heights.Ten days later it still does. At the scene of the crime, the day before this issue went to press, the memorial display of fresh flowers was still growing. Candles were still being lit and new cards had been dropped off. But the tragedy was receding on one level. A few investigators were still working at the house, yet the street is no longer a hub of frantic activity. It was slightly jarring that apart from the charred remains of the house itself the street appeared so normal.
Alexander M. Milman, 46, and his wife, Valentina M. Milman, 39, were living large for awhile. They had a home and a condo in Bellevue, for example, and they'd bought a new house at 9049 N.E. Juanita Drive in Kirkland. The couple also had a fondness for upscale furniture and expensive jewelry that included a Rolex watch. But according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, their lavish lifestyle wasn't financed by the money they made as owners and operators of A-Z Pharmacy businesses in Bellevue, Tacoma and Kent. Instead, according to court documents, the pair scammed Medicaid for more than $1.1 million for latex gloves, adult diapers, liners, underpads and other medical supplies that were never delivered to patients. They were also allegedly paid $417,000 by Medicaid for prescription drugs that were never dispensed.It could have been worse; the couple originally billed Medicaid $554,000 for the prescription drugs and $1.3 million for the other supplies, according to court documents.The allegedly fraudulent scheme lasted from May 2002 to Nov. 10, 2004, according to Grand Jury findings, and the couple was indicted for health-care fraud on July 14 this year following a multi-agency investigation that included the Washington State Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
The four victims of the worst homicide in Kirkland's history were buried at the Evergreen Washelli cemetery July 23 following an emotional memorial service at The City Church, where enlarged photographs of the victims were placed next to two adult-sized coffins and two child-sized coffins. And the savage killings of 28-year-old Olga Milkin, her two sons, 5-year-old Justin and 3-year-old Andrew, and her sister, 24-year-old Lyubov Botvina have shocked even veteran Kirkland police and King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng.The four had been slashed and stabbed multiple times, and they were dead before they and 26 locations in the house were doused in gasoline and set on fire on Monday, July 17, according to court documents.A suspect in the brutal crime, 24-year-old Conner Schierman, was arrested two days later, thanks in part to the help of two neighborhood women who allegedly saw him walking in the area with what looked like a gas can shortly before the fire started.
State Representative Larry Springer formally announced his bid for reelection. Springer has been active in the community for more than two decades, first as a Kirkland City Council member and later as mayor. Under Springer's leadership, Kirkland successfully managed a $5 million budget shortfall by streamlining departments, not cutting services and not raising taxes. He was elected to the Legislature in 2004.He was successful in passing affordable housing legislation and voted to fully fund K-12 education and sponsored legislation to invest in record school construction.Springer has owned The Grape Choice wine shop in downtown Kirkland for more than 20 years. He lives in Kirkland with his wife Penny and their two golden retrievers, Pinot and Beaune. For more information, see www.larryspringer.org.
It's the dog days of summer, and if you have young children, you know it's time to start thinking about back-to-school - and back to the formation of the "great pile": school art projects, homework assignments and permission slips that collect on kitchen counters, creating clutter that never seems to go away. You can help you and your family prepare for the new school year by spending some time getting organized now. Remember, getting organized is not just going through and clearing the piles, but also creating a system to prevent the clutter from forming in the first place. Here are some tips to help you get started.
Seattle's public-housing buildings are undergoing extreme makeovers through the homeWorks project. The Green Lake Plaza apartment building, at 505 N.E. 70th St., is currently at the center of construction changes. Towering far above the rest of the community, this 12-story building is home to more than 100 residents. Green Lake Plaza was built in 1969 and is the first of 22 public-housing buildings picked to undergo improvements.Most noticeably, the apartment complex has been revamped with new colors, taking it from a fading white to elegant green and terra cotta hues. However, the new paint was not just for aesthetic purposes. The elastomeric paint used provides a durable, waterproof protection for the building. "I love the paint on the front of the building," one resident said. "The colors I thought were not going to match, but on the walls and in the sun, it looks really nice."Sven Koehler, communications liaison for the Seattle Housing Authority, which is responsible for the ongoing construction, said, "Public-housing buildings were built 30 to 40 years ago, and basically, we are trying to make sure they last and function into the future."
In addition to its art shows, the Sanctuary Art Center recently organized two murals in the University District.The center is a small, nonprofit art studio and mentoring program that serves homeless youths age 13 to 25. The center encourages youths to be creative and experience the healing and organizational aspect of art.Artist Jeffrey Pankey contributed to the first mural, which took the place of a graffiti-covered mural. The new mural, completed last October with a grant from the Glaser Foundation, is on the parking-lot retaining wall at the University Congregational Church, at the corner of 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 45th Street.It includes pictures of mountains, a ferry, messages painted by youths and more, transcending from the natural world into the cityscape. It took about two weeks to paint.Youths who come to the center help design the murals. They are sketched out beforehand.
Summer is coming to a close, and if you're like me, you are wondering what to do with those saved treasures from this year's trips. It seems a shame - and kind of sad - to just store them away after so much fun. And come our gloomy, winter days, they can offer the hope that summer will come again no matter how much it rains.Last week, I was out looking for garage-sale treasures, and I remembered something I saw years ago that answers both the storage problem and the desire to display: a French message board! What is a French message board? Basically, it is a fabric-covered, padded board that is crisscrossed by ribbons and can hold messages and photos in place underneath the ribbons. Why is this better than the old, traditional cork board? Well, for one thing, it looks better. You can choose a cover fabric that blends with your room's décor so the board doesn't seem out of place anywhere. And secondly, since you start with a plain board that you will cover, you can make it whatever size you need - small for a hallway, larger for the children's room.
Marie Smith, 4, tries her luck at tossing rings onto rubber ducks at the second-annual Northgate Festival on Sunday Aug. 13.
It was during my research on my African ancestry that I discovered something that changed my view of the world. I was looking up the mythology of African tribal groups and found that many of them say they came from somewhere else. Over the years I had discovered that a people's myths should be taken as seriously as their official history. These myths are the stories that cannot be verified through traditional historical means, but they are passed downed from generation to generation. African mythology is often so intertwined with the official history, it's sometimes difficult to separate the two.I had only traced my history to West Africa, but the mythology of most West African tribes tells of how they originated in the Nile Valley. They further say that some founding leader led them to where they are now, and sometimes the tribal group carries their name. When you add that information with the discoveries in the Rift Valley of East Africa, it is clear that mankind emerged from the region where the religious records say man was formed from the dark-red soil.For the first time, I realized that the history of Egypt was part of my history and that East African people were the root of the African family tree. We share a kinship of creation.
Now more than ever, this nation must find the courage to ask hard questions - and demand clear answers - about the Iraq war.Did the Bush administration deceive the American public in the run-up to war? Is deceiving our country into war an impeachable offense? We believe, on both counts, the answer is yes.There is considerable, credible information on record to support such a conclusion. We believe President Bush, in a well-orchestrated campaign, sold this country into an unnecessary, incompetently conducted war based not on sound policy, but personal pathology. This administration was not the hapless victim of faulty intelligence; this is an administration of hyper-intentionality. As former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill stated: "From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go ... It was all about finding a way to do it." The integrity of our democracy demands that we not ignore evidence of pre-war deception.