Neighbors, City Wrestle Over Plans for Northridge Park Development

Northridge Park’s 36 acres are home to more than a mile of trails, a duck pond and, on a clear day, sweeping views of Bellingham Bay.

            When it comes to the city’s $1.2 million plans for the park’s future development, however, Northridge is also home to some controversy.

            The third phase of development – on hold since 2008 – will include playgrounds, sheltered picnic areas and restrooms in two activity areas in the east side of the park, according to the Parks and Recreation Department’s Northridge master plan.

            Sitting at the top of the hill north of Barkley Boulevard, the park is bordered by eight cul-de-sacs: Woodside, Spyglass, Tweed Twenty, Highfield, Pinehurst, Deerpoint, Tanglewood, Magrath, Carrington and Wycliffe Park.

Woodside Community Association Director of Communications Jim Brennan said Barkley residents are concerned that development could increase traffic in the neighborhood’s streets and compromise the trails’ peacefulness.

“(The city has) a problem seeing that this is a different kind of park,” Brennan said. “They seem to think they have to create these things…because it’s cool from a design perspective, but in reality it creates a host of problems.”

Funding for the third phase would include $500,000 from the Greenway Levy and $300,000 in park impact fees (costs that fall back on neighborhood developers and residents).

The master plan also designates new parking access at the park’s border with Woodside Way. Currently, parking is limited to three spaces on Magrath Road and, without signs leading to the spaces, is difficult to locate.

Gina Urcuyo, who lives on Carrington Way near the park, said the issue was not with people outside the neighborhood visiting the park, but with the city’s ability to maintain the project after construction.

            “We want to be a welcoming, but we also want to keep traffic down in these quiet dead-end neighborhoods,” Urcuyo said. “We don’t think we’re better than anyone else, we just want sensible development.”

For now, Northridge development is postponed as the city focuses on other projects. Budget cuts that have halved its staff over the past two years, said Park Operations Manager Marvin Harris.

Harris could not be reached for further comment on Monday.

            John Schulz, project manager for Parks and Recreation, said Northridge development is currently 60 – 70 percent complete, with all necessary utilities available for the future playgrounds and picnic areas.

            The third phase would affect about 7 percent of the park’s total area, he said.

“We take huge efforts to steward the landscape under our control,” Schulz said. “When we design trails, we try to do the best job we can; we try to be efficient and make things as beautifully wondrous for users as possible.”

            Schulz said the department had no approximate date when development would continue, and was consequently unsure when and if more public debate would occur.

The debate over the park’s development came to a head in December 2008, when former Parks and Recreation Chief Paul Leuthold announced during a public meeting that the city could not maintain the facilities that Phase III would provide.

“They don’t want to see any kind of development,” Leuthold told The Bellingham Herald shortly after the meeting. “People blow these things a little out of proportion.”

Brennan said that while many of the residents did feel that the city had ignored citizen input at times, their only interest was making Northridge Park better for everyone.

“That is really the only thing that has offended us – in other respects the city done marvelously, given that they’re cash-scrapped.”

While the residents do not necessarily view the situation as an us-versus-them scenario, many of those living around the park plan on voicing their concerns to the city before development begins again, Brennan said.

 “From our perspective, the project would destroy the virtue and value of the park for no reason,” Brennan said. “We’re going to speak up, not wait around for what the city wants to do with us.”

BARK & BANTER: Parent Advisory Committee to Hold Forum with Bellingham School District Parents

I ran across an item on Shuksan Middle School’s website about a forum being hosted by The Parent Advisory Committee to the Superintendent 6:30 – 9 p.m., May 16 at Bellingham High School. All Bellingham School District parents are invited to attend.

Based on the minutes from the committee’s last meeting, May 5, it looks like major items might include middle school sports and the status of a number of district principles (including Shuksan’s Principal Andy Mark and Assistant Principal Tracy Martinez).

Another item that could be addressed is staff cuts – the district sent out about 60 “preliminary notices” to staff members regarding their position, according to the May 5 minutes.

Northern Heights Becomes Second International Baccalaureate Elementary School in State

Northern Heights Elementary has become the second authorized International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program in the state. The school, along with Wade King Elementary, is now one of nine such programs in the Northwest, according to International Baccalaureate Organization’s website.

The school began the process in 2008, Principal Wendy Barrett said, and was officially authorized in January. Northern Heights will implement the full curriculum this fall.

“It’s been an interesting journey,” Barrett said. “We have spent a lot of time developing the curriculum and we’re very excited.”

Barrett said the strength of the school’s staff as well as the diversity of the student body – there are at least 17 different languages spoken in students’ homes -- made Northern Heights an excellent candidate.

“We knew that our students needed a set of skills wider and deeper than what other schools could offer,” Barrett said. “It’s about cultural understanding and realizing that there are different perspectives everywhere.”

While the school’s curriculum will still meet state standards, Barrett said, the approach will be different. International Baccalaureate programs are framed by six “transdisciplinary” themes: who we are, where we are in place and time, how we express ourselves, how the world works, how we organize ourselves and sharing the planet.

The program also encourages students to fulfill the principles of its “Learner Profile,” which emphasizes risk-taking, open-mindedness and reflection among other characteristics, she said.

“There’s a long history of International Baccalaureate students graduating as critical thinkers, problem solvers and leaders who understand quality and hold themselves to high standards,” Barrett said.

There are currently 273 Primary Years Programs in the United States and more than 3,000 International Baccalaureate programs worldwide reaching around 925,000 students, according to the organization’s website. As an authorized program, Northern Heights will be able to share information and gain advice from any of these schools, which span 140 countries.

International Baccalaureate authorization is a four-phase process. First, the school enters a consideration phase, in which they assess the feasibility of implementing the program. The school then applies for candidacy, paying a $7,300 application fee.

Walking into Northern Heights, it would be difficult to miss the next phase, in which teachers begin introducing some of the program’s concepts; student illustrations of the learner profile, for instance, hang on the walls of nearly every hall.

There is also Northern Heights’ Spanish lab, where at any given time about 30 students don headphones and sit at computers, interacting with Rosetta Stone software; part of this trial phase requires the school to teach a second language.
Finally, International Baccalaureate representatives visit the school and determine its eligibility for authorization.

Leanne Finlay, Northern Heights’ IB coordinator, said the program’s international mindset encourages students to conceptualize rather than memorize lessons. She pointed to one fourth grade central idea, “Conflicts Change Society,” as an example.

“The value is that students aren’t just learning facts,” Finlay said, “They’re learning the concepts of conflict and change. So, no matter what they encounter, whether in middle school or beyond, they will have a foundation of those concepts they can fall back on.”

Second grade teacher Rick Lingbloom, who has taught at Northern Heights for nine years, said while developing the curriculum was an intensive process for the staff, he has noticed positive developments among the students.

“I’ve noticed more student involvement,” Lingbloom said. “There’s cohesiveness in the classroom that comes from a common language with the central ideas and lines of inquiry. I hear those attributions all the time.”

Finlay agreed.

“In order to make a program like this work, you have to have full staff support,” Finlay said. “It’s been an intensive, sustained process; it’s been challenging to think differently; it’s also been amazing to see the engagement in the classroom.”

The next step, Finlay said, is for the school to continue incorporating the students’ families in the process. She said while teachers have been updating families with newsletters at the beginning of each unit, the school can also use them as a resource for the students.

“We are thinking about how we can tap into the family community,” Finlay said. “As kids take their learning home with them, we want to keep opening up the conversation and connecting with the community.”

BARK & BANTER: Bellingham Libraries See Record Checkouts, Fewer Visitors

Bellingham Public Library patrons set a record last year, checking out over 1.6 million items, according to an article published in today’s Bellingham Herald. Checkouts increased in 2010 by about 1 percent over the previous year despite a 14 percent budget cut as well as 7 percent fewer visitors.

            Director for Bellingham Public Library Pam Keisner told the Herald she thought these numbers indicated “a decrease in access for the public to our libraries because of the number of hours that we've cut, primarily.”

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            The three library branches, including the Barkley branch, were open 180 fewer hours than in 2009. One discussion board post suggested looking into the creation of a digital library, which has had a hard time getting off the ground on a national scale.

            From conversations I’ve had with residents, I know many people see the Barkley branch as a vital element in their community. In what ways have you felt the “decrease in access?” What, if anything, do you feel should be done about it?