The Issaquah School District is wasting no time when it comes to putting its recently-approved $219 million bond dollars into action.

The school board reviewed a preliminary schedule of projects and timeline for school construction and other district upgrades at its May 9 meeting. Some projects could begin as soon as July and others extend through the end of 2019.

“Somebody has to be first, and somebody has to be last,” said Jacob Kuper, chief operations officer for the district.

Phase 2 construction of Liberty High School and Phase 2 at Maywood Middle School are first in line with finishes projected by the end of 2013. At the caboose of the tentative timeline is the reconstruction of Sunny Hills Elementary School, which wouldn’t finish until December 2018.

Construction to improve Skyline High School’s stadium would begin April 2013 and run through September 2014. As a result, Skyline’s football team is likely to play away games for the entire 2013 season. Issaquah High School will have the same problem a few years later when its stadium remodel takes place from April 2016 to August 2017.

This summer, the district hopes to install artificial turf on the athletic fields at Beaver Lake and Maywood middle schools. It would then install turf fields at Pine Lake and Pacific Cascade middle schools the following summer.

“We didn’t want to take all the fields out over the course of the summer because it would be a huge impact on the community,” said Steve Crawford, director of capital projects for the district.

The tentative schedule only listed major projects, with repairs and other smaller projects bundled together to be done over the next seven years and possibly beyond.

“This is a draft schedule, subject to change,” said Kuper. “When you are talking about 80 percent of a decade, there are going to be changes.”

He and Crawford explained that there are a number of factors that influence the timeline, like permitting with different jurisdictions and whether or not construction is located in rural or urban areas.

A different contracting method

Crawford and Kuper also suggested using an alternative contracting method for the more complex project of relocating Issaquah Middle School, Clark Elementary School and Tiger Mountain High School. The method, General Contractor Construction Management, would replace the traditional bidding process.

Instead, the district would bring in a general contractor early on in the design phase to be a part of the multi-phase project throughout. By doing so, Crawford said the district would get the contractor’s expertise on things like materials and efficiencies. He said the district would negotiate costs with the contractor.

“I think there is the potential to save some money…we will know earlier in the process where the big costs are,” said Crawford.

Another area where it could save money, he said, is by potentially reducing delays. The threat of delays would be stronger, he explained, if three separate contractor bids are accepted for three different phases.

In this case, one general contractor would be responsible for the whole project. Ideally, each phase, including the relocation of three different student bodies, would be better synchronized if one firm is managing the entire process.

“The advantage is to shorten the timeline,” said Crawford.

The district’s preliminary timeline includes two possible schedules for the Issaquah, Clark and Tiger Mountain project. The first, using the traditional bidding method, estimates that the project would begin this month with its design and permitting phase and continue through the beginning of 2017. The target move-in date for students would be August 2016.

The second schedule, using one general contractor, would also start this month with early designs and permitting. Construction would finish at the beginning of 2016 with students set to be in their new facilities by August 2015.

District officials have not made a final decision yet and Kuper said that at this point and time, both avenues – going the traditional bidding route or using its alternative – are still open.

While Washington school districts are allowed to pursue the latter option, this would be the first time that the Issaquah School District does so.

First, however, the district must get approval from the state. Washington’s Capital Projects Advisory Review Board is expected to review the district’s projects’ proposals later this month or in June.

No-bid contracts would still be competitive

Should Issaquah School District officials decide to use the general contractor construction method, they must still abide by state requirements for how the general contractor is picked. Under state law, the contractor must be hired through a competitive process that involves the district publicly posting that it is looking for proposals.

The call for proposals has to include details such as a description of the project, reasons for using this method in the first place and a description of how proposals will be scored. The state also has guidelines for how the proposals are evaluated, including requiring a committee to do the evaluating. The applicants would be judged on their reputation, workload and the amount of work their firm could do itself. Finalists would need to submit a more detailed proposal, which would include an estimated maximum cost.

To make the final choice, those proposals would then have to be opened and read publicly. The public would also then get the chance to see how the finalists were scored.

Learn more about guidelines for capital projects at www.ga.wa.gov/cparb/.

Andrew Rekdahl

NEW — 11:30 a.m. May 16, 2012

Issaquah School District and Eastside Catholic High School officials sought to reassure parents and students May 11 after federal agents arrested a substitute bus driver for the Issaquah district and former Eastside Catholic teacher for possession of child pornography.

Andrew Bernard Rekdahl, 29, faces child pornography charges after federal prosecutors said the Carnation resident shared explicit images and videos of boys online from his home computer.

Department of Homeland Security agents arrested Rekdahl at a school district facility May 10 after a monthslong sting operation.

Federal prosecutors charged him with one count each of possession and distribution of child pornography. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison.

Rekdahl served as a substitute bus driver for more than a dozen routes throughout the school district between Nov. 14 and May 10 and as a science teacher at Eastside Catholic in Sammamish from 2005 to June 2010.

Officials at the school district and the parochial school said no complaints occurred against Rekdahl at either organization.

“This is obviously a very serious charge, and our first priority is making sure that he acted as a professional at all times while driving for us,” Issaquah School District Superintendent Steve Rasmussen said in a message to parents.

Rekdahl served as a substitute teacher at Eastside Catholic once after he lost his job due to budget cuts.

“Eastside Catholic is not presently, nor has it ever been, aware of any concerns regarding Mr. Rekdahl’s conduct during his association with our school,” Sister Mary Tracy, Eastside Catholic president, said in a message to parents.

Rekdahl was a well-liked teacher at Eastside Catholic. In 2010, students and parents raised more than $17,000 to support him as he underwent treatment for aggressive duodenal carcinoma, or cancer of the small intestine.

In a customary procedure for bus drivers, school district officials cleared Rekdahl through mandatory state and federal background checks before he started driving in November. Both background checks accurately indicated a clean record.

Federal agents told school district officials no evidence exists to indicate any inappropriate or illegal activities occurred as Rekdahl worked for the district.

Following the arrest, school district administrators immediately stopped employing him with future substitute assignments.

The district is also investigating footage of him driving on bus routes. Officials confirmed he never activated or used his employee email account.

In May 2011, a federal agent created an undercover account on a peer-to-peer file-sharing website to target users sharing child pornography.

In January, the agent noticed a user named Hboyandy sharing explicit videos through the file-sharing website. Then, using a publicly available software program, the agent identified the IP address of Rekdahl’s computer.

The next day, the agent requested information from Comcast for the subscriber information attached to the IP address.

In April, Hboyandy again made explicit images and videos available for sharing through the file-sharing website.

The agent then obtained Rekdahl’s driver’s license photo from the state Department of Licensing and matched the photo against Rekdahl’s Facebook page.

In early May, the agent conducted surveillance on Rekdahl’s residence in Carnation and checked to see if somebody else shared the files through an unsecured Wi-Fi network attached to Rekdahl’s IP address. The only unsecured account near the home came from the nearby Carnation Library.

On May 9, the agent obtained a search warrant, and the next day, federal agents and Duvall-Carnation police officers searched the home and located multiple digital media storage devices. Rekdahl was not at home during the search, and agents entered the residence through the unlocked front door.

Investigators searched a laptop computer at the scene and discovered 194 files of child pornography.

Following the search, agents interviewed Rekdahl at a school district facility in Issaquah. During questioning, he admitted to sharing child pornography online. Agents arrested him at about 10:30 a.m.

The next day, as the school district and Eastside Catholic faced questions about the arrest, administrators used the Internet to share information and address parents’ concerns.

“We also believe it important to highlight on this sad occasion that Eastside Catholic maintains strong policies to address any inappropriate conduct by our staff,” Tracy said. “This is consistent with our unwavering commitment to the safety of our students and community as well as long-standing resolve to fulfill our Catholic educational mission.”

The school district posted a list of Rekdahl’s bus routes. The substitute bus driver covered routes throughout the district, serving elementary, middle and high schools.

The district stretches from Preston to Newcastle, and from Sammamish to Renton, and includes 107 school bus routes.

The district employs 24 substitute bus drivers, but only 10 are available every day at all times of day. The others are available sporadically throughout the month. District officials did not specify Rekdahl’s availability, citing personnel privacy policies.

Newcastle  police officers plan to urge motorists to buckle up — or else — on Click It or Ticket patrols from May 21 to June 3.

The patrols start as public safety officials celebrate the 10th anniversary of Washington’s primary seat belt law. Officials estimate the law requiring motorists to buckle up has saved 1,010 lives.

Besides the Newcastle Police Department, 37 agencies in Western Washington plan to look for unbuckled motorists and passengers.

Violators face a $124 fine for not wearing a seat belt.

Washington state is a leader in seat belt use in the United States with 97.5 percent of motorists wearing seat belts — up 82 percent since the primary seat belt law took effect in 2002.

Statewide, traffic deaths declined from 658 in 2002 to 455 in 2011.

Despite the successes, officials said four out of 10 people killed in car crashes in Washington in the last five years did not wear seat belts.

“We are getting the word out to remind everyone to buckle up so we don’t have to write tickets,” Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick, a former Mill Creek State representative and sponsor of the 2002 legislation, said in a statement. “The purpose of the law is to save lives and I’m really pleased to see how far we’ve come.”

Police in nearby Bellevue, Issaquah, Renton and Snoqualmie plan to participate in the Click It or Ticket patrols. Washington State Patrol troopers plan to join the effort, too. The effort is coordinated with support from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.

Newcastle will celebrate National Trails Day on June 2 with a trail walk beginning at Lake Boren Park at 9 a.m.

Attendees are encouraged to meet at the restrooms.  The event will include a tour of the historic Newcastle Cemetery with history highlights of the cemetery given by Jim Price of Newcastle Trails. Residents can tour the new section of the Olympus Trail, continuing south and returning to Lake Boren Park for light refreshments at the waterline.

Allow approximately two hours for the walk.  All ages are welcome, but sections of the walk are not baby-stroller suitable.

View a Newcastle Trails map online at NewcastleTrails.org.

Federal agents arrested a substitute bus driver for the Issaquah School District for child pornography possession Thursday.

In the course of the investigation, security officials told district officials no evidence exists to believe any inappropriate or illegal activities occurred as the driver — identified as Carnation resident Andrew Bernard Rekdahl in court documents — worked for the district.

Parents are encouraged to email the district at DriverConcerns@issaquah.wednet.edu if they have concerns after speaking with their children. Rasmussen said in a statement that parents have been calling for details about specific routes the driver covered during his time with the district. A list of those routes should be available on the district website this afternoon.

Prosecutors charged charged Rekdahl with possession and distribution of child pornography.

“This is obviously a very serious charge, and our first priority is making sure that he acted as a professional at all times while driving for us,” Superintendent Steve Rasmussen said in a statement released early Friday afternoon.

Prosecutors said Rekdahl shared explicit images and videos of boys online.

In customary procedure, the Issaquah district cleared the substitute driver through mandatory state and federal background checks before he started driving in November. Both background checks accurately showed a clean record.

The district never received complaints or concerns about the driver during his short employment.

District administrators have immediately stopped employing the driver with any future substitute assignments. The district is also investigating footage of him driving his routes. Officials confirmed he never activated or used his employee email account.

In 2010, Rekdahl worked as a teacher at Eastside Catholic High School.

As the next major step to align each of the three high schools schedules in the Issaquah School District, administrators encourage parents and students to become involved with the Liberty High School Schedule Committee that will be formed this month.

The parent and student application and a timeline of the project are available online now.

Applications are due to Kathy Schroeder in Liberty’s main office by May 18, and parents of Maywood Middle School and Liberty students are especially encouraged to apply.

The school will continue with the same eight-period schedule for the 2012-13 school year. Issaquah and Skyline high schools have a six-period daily schedule in place, while Liberty has eight.

ISD Superintendent Steve Rasmussen required action on the topic after a high school scheduling committee was formed last year to take on and rectify problems associated with the schedules.

In the scheduling committee’s final report, two main issues emerged: the need to increase student and teacher interaction time at Liberty and provide student access to more courses throughout the school year, especially at Issaquah and Skyline.

Because of Liberty’s eight?period block schedule, it is approximately 24 hours under the requirement and approximately 36 hours below Issaquah and Skyline High Schools, which have six period schedules, Rasmussen wrote in a statement to students, staff and parents in January.

Rasmussen outlined the beginning of the 2013-14 school year as the final date for implementation on a new schedule. The Liberty schedule committee will meet between September and November and submit a new schedule proposal to Rasmussen on Nov. 7.

“The goal of a common schedule is important because it will allow sharing of resources, an improved educational experience, standardized professional development and comparable expectations around pacing and instruction, and potential for increased opportunities for all students to access courses and programs that do not exist in a student’s home school,” he stated.

A Newcastle woman took this picture of two women suspected in a home burglary in the China Creek neighborhood around 12 p.m. May 8.

UPDATED — 3:30 p.m. May 9, 2012

An alert neighbor spotted a suspicious truck and two women she did not recognize at her neighbor’s house around 12 p.m. May 8 in the China Falls neighborhood, according to a release from Newcastle Police Chief Melinda Irvine.

The neighbor reported that she saw the women leave the house carrying items and called 911 and took photographs.

Residents are encouraged to call Newcastle Police at 649-4444 if they recognize them or had any contact with them this morning.

The vehicle is reportedly a two-door green Chevy S-10 truck, with the Chevrolet emblem on the hubcaps. There is a sticker in the side window behind the driver and the bed has distinctive chrome tie downs. The bed’s liner is black. An adult male with tan or dark skin was seen driving the truck. He wore a gray knit cap and white polo shirt.

The first suspicious person — a white woman in her 20s with red-brown hair— is reported to have been wearing a dark brown hooded zip-up shirt, jeans and brown with red trim Nike tennis shoes. The second suspicious person — a white woman in her 20s with blonde hair — is reported to have been wearing a white hooded shirt with pink and blue designs with jeans and white tennis shoes.

“Residents have been great about taking photos and calling us when they see suspicious activity,” Irvine said in the release. “Please continue to do so, making sure you remain safe (out of sight as in this case is great) and if you can write down a license plate that is awesome too.”

Some tips the police department recommend to preventing home break-ins include:

Lock your doors, windows and garage door even when you are home.

If you have an alarm system, use it (it does not have to be monitored to be effective).

If you do not want to talk to someone at your door, tell them no thank you through the door. You do not need to open the door.

Use timers on lights and radios to make your home appear occupied when you are away.

Stop your mail or have a trusted neighbor or friend pick it up when you are away.

This truck is also considered suspicious by police. The Newcastle Police Department encourages residents to call 649-4444 if they noticed it in their neighborhoods May 8.

Residents are also encouraged to take advantage of the Newcastle Police Vacation House Check program. Forms may be submitted through the city web site, www.ci.newcastle.wa.us, or at City Hall.

The department encourages residents to work with your neighbors to prevent crimes in your area. Contact Newcastle Police Officer Ryan Olmsted at Ryan.Olmsted@kingcounty.gov for information about the Block Watch Program.

If at any time you observe any criminal or suspicious activity, call 911 or the non-emergency dispatch number, 206-296-3311.

The city of Newcastle and Waste Management received a Washington State Recycling Association Recyclers of the Year award May 1 for their competitive project to increase neighborhood recycling last year.

Recipients are selected by a panel of association members representing several aspects of the recycling industry, including collectors and processors, government agencies, businesses and nonprofit organizations.

“Through innovative programs like the recycling challenge, cities and other organizations can assist in reducing environmental impacts,” Newcastle City Manager Rob Wyman said in a statement. “Newcastle is proud of the award and of its citizens who rose to the challenge.”

During Newcastle’s Waste Less, Recycle More, Win Big event, residents were encouraged to recycle more, reduce what they sent to the landfill and lower the community’s carbon footprint. Two neighborhoods competed for a $5,000 neighborhood improvement grant. The campaign resulted in a citywide 22.8 percent increase.

The neighborhoods were split into two down Coal Creek Parkway. The Recycling Renegades took the title from the Waste Less Warriors in Waste Management’s Newcastle Neighborhood Recycling Rewards competition.

On average, Renegade households recycled about a half-pound more each month than Warrior homes, Waste Management communications representative Robin Freedman said.

During the five-month competition, the city recycled nearly 550 tons of materials — an increase of more than 100 tons of materials compared to the same five-month period in 2010. Residents also increased food composting and yard waste participation by 50 tons.

The $5,000 grant was used to erect a new flagpole outside of City Hall at the Newcastle Professional Building.

Other association awardees include the city of Tacoma, city of Bellevue, Bellevue School District, Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Gonzaga University, Harborview Medical Center, Microsoft, Stevens Pass Mountain Resort and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The awards banquet will be held in at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane.

The association advocates and educates for the expansion and economic vitality of recycling as a part of sustainable resource management. Formed in 1976, it boasts 280 member organizations and more than 700 individual members including private, community and governmental agencies.

Go to www.wsra.net or call 206-244-0311 to learn more about the award. Award applications are available each November on the website.

“It wasn’t that long ago that our permitting department was the most maligned of our agencies, with good people struggling with old ways of doing business,” Constantine said in a statement. “I gave John a mandate to reform the agency, and since then he has instituted reforms that have increased efficiency, reduced fees and shortened the time to process permits.”

The award was presented April 5 at the 53rd annual Civic Awards Celebration Dinner at Herban Feast in the SODO area of Seattle.

John Starbard

Starbard fulfilled one executive priority early in his tenure by moving to a fixed rate for each type of permit, instead of billing customers by the hours it took to process a permit — providing customers with predictable costs and, in most cases, reduced fees. A new pre-screening service helps customers ensure their application is complete before submission, which saves processing time.

Starbard enlisted staff to create a new over-the-counter service that now takes two hours instead of the two months it took previously. He also led reductions in the amount of time it takes to issue a permit for custom single-family homes — from 64 days last year down to about 38 days this year, and he says staff members feel they can do even better.

“We have repeatedly asked the staff of DDES to move mountains in a short period of time,” Starbard said. “They have demonstrated to themselves — in numerous refinements that are often their own design — how our department can provide better and valued services to our customers.”

Starbard said his department will soon deploy new software to enable online permit applications with a robust tracking function. The software will have the capacity for paperless permitting, with information able to be shared instantly between departments, and between the field and DDES staff. Some customers will be able to complete the process without leaving their homes.

He is also improving customer service by moving the main office of DDES to the city of Snoqualmie, to bring services closer to the center of the agency’s customer base. At the heart of the new office will be a Customer Assistance Center to provide all of the agency’s drop-in services at one counter. The move also saves about $1 million a year in rent.

Starbard was appointed DDES director in March 2010.

Newcastle City Council members fired Starbard in January 2010. The council attributed the decision to tense relationships between him, elected officials and city residents.

He previously served as city manager for Maple Valley, then Newcastle. He began his career with the city of Bellevue, rising from the planning department to the office of the city manager. He has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Puget Sound and a master’s degree from the University of Washington.

Newcastle will be the home of a new Renton School District middle school after residents voted to fund the project as a part of a $97 million school bond that passed by 60.57 percent April 17.

More than 10,300 people voted in favor of the measure, which funds the school, improvements to the Lindbergh High School pool and other construction costs, while about 6,700 rejected it.

School district spokesman Randy Matheson said while the district has not yet begun laying out specifics of the school, it should open its doors by the 2016 school year.

The Renton School Board voted Feb. 29 to rerun the bond after its first run in the Feb. 14 special election originally came up two points shy — or about 300 votes — of the 60 percent needed to pass.

Of the $97 million requested by the district, $53.2 million will go toward building the new middle school in Newcastle and $5.5 million will go toward improvements of the Lindbergh High School swimming pool.

About $5 million will be used for the district’s land acquisition for future projects, $5.9 million will go for upgrading existing facilities, $8.8 million will go toward energy conservation district wide and $18.6 million will go toward building upgrades for existing structures.

Citizens for Renton Schools Chair John Galluzzo said a major setback to gathering enough support for the bond the first time around was giving residents a clear picture of what the bond would mean to them financially.

“This is positive proof of the school district’s standing with citizens that it serves,” he said. “People have to vote for those bonds. They have to commit their own funds. I think the improvement they’ve seen in the school district shows that people are saying, ‘we see you as good stewards of the money. We see the money we give to you is paying off.’”

According to the district, the bond collection rate will be an additional 18 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value, or about $46 per year for the average homeowner. That rate includes funding from all past voter approved bond measures plus the new bond measure.

The proposed levy/bond rate for those living in the district would increase to $5.39 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2013, up from $5.21 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2012.

The bond, which was identical to the one run previously, will fund the new middle school at the former Hazelwood Elementary School site, now home to the Renton Academy.

Matheson said it has not yet been determined if the school will be a traditional middle school or a magnet school that could focus on specialized curriculum such as math or science.

The Renton Academy provides alternative education services for students in the district. Those students will be moved to a new location yet to be determined, he said.

According to data collected by the RSD, the 213 middle schools in the state of Washington have an average of 609 students per facility.

McKnight Middle School, of which most students in Newcastle that live in the Renton district attend, has 1,152 students, while Dimmitt Middle School and Nelsen Middle School have 1,038 and 970 students, respectively.

There are 14 elementary schools that feed into the three middle schools in the RSD.

“McKnight Middle School is one of the most overcrowded middle schools in the state,” Matheson said. “That’s not conducive to a good learning environment. As a district, we have to figure out how to ease that overcrowding and this is one way to do that. We need an environment where students and teachers can thrive, learn and have more opportunity for growth.”