James Vesely / Times editorial page editor
Continuity counts, in schools and community

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Just below the radar, I believe the center is holding. While the region may have even tougher economic times ahead, the things that will bring us back are still working.

Two events the past week say to me that we are not yet at the lip of the precipice that other cities and regions were in hard times.

Nine hundred people for lunch is a nice, round number, and so is $8 million. The first number is the size of the crowd Thursday for the annual Bellevue School Foundation celebratory gathering; the second is the amount of money the foundation has raised — and poured into Bellevue public schools — since 1979. Not bad for a town of around 100,000 people. In the next three years, foundation board members intend to raise $5 million more.

The spring rite at Meydenbauer Center has become almost a mandatory function for the Eastside, and Bellevue in particular. Bellevue schools, unlike some nearby districts, are riding a high: national recognition, a coveted school superintendent in Mike Riley, no strike this past year, and the reputation that Bellevue's public schools are as good as they get.

Schools are the underpinnings of desirable communities, they bring families to town, they get corporations interested, and they enhance property values. Right now, it's all working pretty well in Bellevue.

The foundation's fall fund raiser, a telephone solicitation campaign this past October, raised more than $200,000, with another $275,000 the goal of last week's luncheon. Corporate sponsors, from Washington Mutual to Boeing to smaller firms, have been inculcated in the value of Bellevue's schools and are major donors. From Web links to testimonials from the most heart-crunching students and teachers anywhere, the foundation is a machine, looked at with some awe by neighboring districts.

But people don't give in these times without conviction, and the key to the Bellevue School Foundation's success is that it is value added. The money doesn't go down a hole, never to be seen again. The foundation becomes the instrument of the parents and contributors for such things as science classrooms, reading programs and special education, giving added value to the school district.

In West Seattle, 300 folks arrived at South Seattle Community College to pay tribute to Dr. Peter Ku, retiring as chancellor of Seattle Community Colleges. As Gov. Gary Locke said that night, "We have one of the best community college systems in the United States."

That's for sure. Despite constant budget problems and the danger of community colleges slipping between the cracks of higher ed, that multi-campus system of career builders should be recognized along with Ku's tenure. Since the system was formed in 1967, the community colleges have done the yeoman's work of opening doors.

In the problems that plague us, deficits of both money and values, it's the values that mean the most. That springtime Thursday was Rick Neuheisel day, another commentary on money and values.

But this commentary is about the link between Bellevue and West Seattle that day. Put together, more than 1,000 people paid their time and money to celebrate institutions that work.

Ku was born in China, educated in Taiwan and the United States, earned a doctorate and rose into administration of a system designed to give people a break. At Bellevue's luncheon, the student presenters from Lake Hills Elementary have the down-home, American names of Anastasiya Belyavskaya and Shing Varakitsomboon, two kids who charmed 900 people into helpless submission. Teacher Penny Cheshier of Odle Middle School couldn't control the tears as she talked of her mentorship of student Kevin Syltebo, and neither could members of the audience.

It is with these small acts of continuity and quiet leadership that we will get out of this slump.

James Vesely's column appears Sunday on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is: jvesely@seattletimes.com

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