It's Always a "Fine Day", Thanks to General Ed, and School's Almost In Session!
Clover Park Rotary Meeting Notes August 28, 2019 Notes taken by Sheri Hodson Photos provided by Tom McClellan & Alan Billingsley Edited by Dave Hall Today’s Greeter was Jeanne Hill. The Invocation was delivered by Jeannie Hill. Ralph Lockhart gave us a stirring Toast to the Flag and then led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Visiting Rotarians – Ralph Lockhart (Harbor County), Ron Banner (Lakewood), and Sue Potter (Passport). Visitors – Bart Dalton (CP Kiwanis), Ed Owens (friend of Marie Barth), Hope Davis (creator of our logo and guest of Darrel), Wendy Lockhart (wife of Ralph), Leanna Albrecht (school district) and Harrison Billingsley (son of Katelyn). Sunshine Report – Jeannie Hill’s special person, John Ruze, is recovering from his surgery last week. Thank you for keeping John and Jeannie in your prayers. Future Programs: September 4 – Karen George – The 1945 Sinking of the USS Indianapolis September 11 – Kylee Durant – The USO September 18 – Brenna Doyle – Child Trafficking Announcements: President Ellie – Please remember to bring school supplies next week for Custer Elementary (supplies list attached) Alan Billingsley – The Club donated 360 glue sticks and 27 dozen Dry Erase Markers to Custer Elementary as requested by the school to start the school year. Alan will deliver additional supplies next week.  Alan Billingsley - August 24 work party at the South Sound Wildlife Refuge was a huge success as we transformed the area!!! Trees cut down or limbed, blackberry bushes removed, fence taken down, some power washing, raking and more raking of debris. Alan had a poster with before and after photos. We had 19 trailers full of debris for the dump, the chipping pile or compost during our 154 volunteer hours. Thank you to the 36 volunteers out there which included Rotarians, Kiwanis and people from the Oakbrook neighborhood. Ralph Lockhart even brought out his backhoe and dump truck. More work to come. Thank you Alan for all your hard work coordinating.   Marie Barth: After the hard work people gathered at Marie’s for food and swimming. The Carr and Billingsley children thoroughly enjoyed the water. Thank you Marie for hosting!!!  Sydna Koontz - announced Partner’s for Parks “Barn Bingo Night” is Sep 6th. Tickets still available. Tickets get you 8 games of bingo and dinner.  Bart Dalton – Kiwanis are building 3 sections of new playground equipment on September 28th. They are looking for volunteers from 8:00-1:00 and 12:00 – 5:00. They are looking for 50-100 volunteers.  Lisa Blevins - announced her and a friend are having a grand opening at their new store, Custom Designs Certified T shirts, Saturday, August 31st from 10 – 6:00. Store location is 7247 S Pine St in Tacoma. President’s Minute: National Red Wine Day Yes there was wine on each table. With it being during the middle of the work day for many, the bottles went unopened. Marie Barth as fine master ($7 dollar Confessions available) Sydna Koontz – Confessed it was her birthday. Happy Birthday Sydna!!! Actually there was a crime against Rotary since we neglected to sing Happy Birthday to our fellow Rotarian. Randy Black – Announced the birth of his healthy grandson, Miles Harrison Reed. He and Tina are very proud grandparents. $50 Georgene Mellom – welcome back from a trip to London with her daughter and son-in-law. She also confessed she missed last week because she was at Kiwanis luncheon. $100 Darryl Owens – Attended his 50th class reunion. Jim Hairston – paid his $40 Wachter Teresa Nye – celebrated her 23rd wedding anniversary in style. They went to Victoria and on the way home she flew in the front seat of the float plane when they returned. $20 John Munn –  After years in planning the Munn family went to Disney World, a trip they all really enjoyed. He also shared the opening of Biloxi Blues at the Lakewood Playhouse. Karen George – recapped how she and General Bill met one of his former soldiers. General Bill didn’t remember him but he certainly remembered the situation they were in together. It was early in the General’s military career and he helped resolve some major race tensions that were happening in Germany at the time. He was able to diffuse the situation and help resolve some of the concerns of his soldiers. It is one of Karen’s favorite stories. Today’s Program:  Clover Park School Superintendent, Ron Banner Lots of numbers and stats in today’s presentation. There are approximately 13,000 students and 1,700 staff (951 teachers and 759 support) in the Clover Park School District. The mix of students continues to diversify with Hispanic growing to 34%. About 3,600 are part of a military family. 671 million budget for the 16 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, 2 high schools and 1 6th-12th. Two of the middle schools will become one – Mann and Woodbrook will become Claudia Thomas Middle School. The 73 million will be coming out of the funds the school district already has from the sale of property and buildings. It will open August 2020. A few more stats for you: 1500 ESL students, 42 languages spoken, 475 Early Childhood students, 100+ Running Start students, 1626 Special Ed Students (age 5-21). Ron was very passionate on preparing kids for the future. He has 3 children and so he has always challenged his staff to create environment where he would send his children. Follow up to the question on statewide graduation rate - The current state four-year graduation rate is 80.9 percent. Clover Park School District is 88.6 percent. Raffle Drawing:  There was $630 in the raffle today but still no ace drawn by Jim Hairston. I believe we will be down to 9 cards and two aces next week!!! |