It’s a wrap — and with this final edition of The Beachcomber in 2023, it’s time to look back at the biggest stories of the year for our small island.

For The Beachcomber’s small staff, these stories boiled down to ferries, teacher investigations, Seattle Indian Health Board’s arrival on Vashon, elections, housing, and a fire district taxing measure that seemed, this summer, to have the whole town talking.

Ferry Woes

In 2023, no single issue more negatively impacted islanders than Vashon’s continued degraded and diminished ferry service.

In 2021, Washington State Ferries (WSF) reduced the Triangle Route, which connects the north end of Vashon to Fauntleroy on the east and Southworth on the west, to a two-boat schedule.

In January, WSF announced the three-boat schedule would begin to restore service to three boats “within the next few months,” later pushing that restoration estimate to May. Four other routes had been prioritized and restored ahead of the Triangle route: Anacortes/San Juan Islands; Seattle Bainbridge; Mukilteo/Clinton; and Edmonds/Kingston.

But in August, WSF nixed the plan, saying the Triangle route would not be restored until early 2024, due to ongoing issues with staffing and vessel availability. Currently, WSF is updating a service contingency plan — expected to be released soon — that will offer yet another update on plans to restore the route.

There is some reason for hope: WSF officials now say that staffing has been increasing, and more than $20 million funding in state and federal funding has come in to help the beleaguered transportation agency get back on track.

Still, the lack of reliable service to Vashon seemed to reach a boiling point in September, when a community forum on the ferry woes drew 300 islanders.

And in November, a workgroup convened by the Vashon Island Chamber of Commerce released a 25-page report that in part detailed the island’s frustrations with the ferry system.

The report said cancellations and delays of Vashon’s ferry service had disproportionately harmed children, the elderly, the chronically ill, small businesses, and people facing economic hardships. These harms have included ambulance delays, both for patients getting to off-island hospitals and aid personnel coming back for 911 calls on the island; missed medical appointments; lost work and wages for employees; and youth being stranded on ferry docks before, during and after school.

The report also included a compendium of ideas for state and county leaders.

At least one of the suggestions — expanding water taxi access — is a top priority for incoming King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, elected in November to represent Vashon as the new District 8 representative.

“We’re working on that right now, and we’ll see how we can make progress,” Mosqueda said, at the ferry forum in September.

Affordable housing crisis

In 2023, Vashon made news for its serious shortage of affordable housing.

A community forum on the subject, held in October at Vashon Center for the Arts and attended by State Reps. Emily Alvarado and State Sen. Joe Nguyen, focused on crafting new local funding sources for housing projects, efforts to incentivize or demystify accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and legislative action to make it easier or cheaper to build.

The discussion took place under the looming shadow of the upcoming, once-in-a-decade update to King County’s Comprehensive Plan, a document that guides the county’s philosophy and priorities around growth and housing in the region. The plan is set to be adopted by the County Council around December 2024.

There was progress, though, on Vashon.

Throughout the year, islanders have watched the construction of Island Center Homes on Vashon Highway and 188th Street. This project, long in the works by Vashon HouseHold, will boast 40 units of affordable housing for low-income and at-risk islanders.

Vashon HouseHold also secured 12 additional affordable housing units with its “buyer-friendly” purchase of the Islander Apartments in April — more good news.

And in September, islanders learned that another 40-unit apartment community, Creekside Village on Vashon, will begin construction next year, thanks to the efforts of Vashon’s Shelter America Group.

Teacher Investigations

In the spring of 2023, the school district wrapped months-long investigations of two longtime Vashon High School (VHS) teachers, Kara Sears and John Rees — separately accused in 2022 of grooming students for romantic relationships that took place in the summers following the teenagers’ graduation from high school.

An investigator found that Sears had violated school district policy in her conduct with a 2022 graduate in multiple ways, as well as with other students during the 2021-2022 school year.

The investigation of Rees centered on accusations made by 2001 and 2008 VHS graduates, who with their attorneys detailed strikingly similar behavior by Rees in his conduct toward the students both in the classroom and immediately following their graduations, when he made declarations of love to them.

Both teachers submitted letters of resignation to the district in March which were approved, without comment, by the school board.

According to terms of settlement agreements signed by McSheehy, Sears continued to receive her full salary and benefits from the district until Oct. 31; Rees received his salary and benefits until Aug. 31, along with an additional $10,000 payment from the district. The settlement with Rees ended the district’s investigation of him before the time that the district’s investigator had completed a written report on the case.

But even as both district investigations ended, new investigations of the teachers were launched by the state agency charged with certifying teachers.

In April, Catherine Slagle, director of the state Office of Professional Practices (OPP), a department of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), said her office’s investigations began after McSheehy sent the agency letters of complaint about Sears and Rees. Such letters to OSPI are required by law if school superintendents believe that certified educators lack good moral character and/or personal fitness, or have engaged in unprofessional conduct.

In August, Rees voluntarily surrendered his certificate to teach in Washington State and agreed not to seek its reinstatement, ending OPP’s investigation of him. OPP’s investigation of Sears is ongoing, according to Slagle, who in an email last week said that an interview of Sears and her attorney was scheduled to take place on Dec. 21.

Community reaction to the school district’s handling of the investigations has been strong.

At a standing-room-only school board meeting in late April, student board representatives said that the district had not kept students well informed about the investigations, prompting a written apology from McSheehy.

Other community members urged the passage of a board resolution condemning sexual relationships between educators and students for a minimum of one year after graduation, and establishing a policy that held educators to this standard for two years after a student’s graduation.

A statement released six days later by board president Allison Krutsinger cited legal concerns in declining to pursue such a policy as well as in the district’s decision to sign settlement agreements with Sears and Rees. However, Krutsinger also announced the formation of a workgroup led by Vashon’s DOVE Project, with participants including student leaders, labor leaders, district staff, and impacted community members.

The goals of the group would be to “listen deeply to students, staff, and community; better understand where current gaps in policy and practice exist related to student safety; and make recommendations to the board before the end of this school year.”

The time frame for the workgroup was later extended; it resumed meetings this fall after a summer break.

The investigations also impacted a spirited election to fill four open seats on Vashon’s school board. Nine islanders stepped up to run for four open seats on the board in June, with several citing the district’s handling of the investigations as a reason for running. An August primary narrowed the field to seven for the November general election, when Kaycie Alanis, Juniper Rogneby, Martha Woodard and Lucia Armenta were elected to join Krutsinger, who was not up for reelection.

Seattle Indian Health Board

In March, the Seattle Indian Health Board, a nationally recognized health organization that specializes in services for urban Native Americans, purchased the Vashon Community Care (VCC) building for $11 million.

A federal appropriation of $5 million for the new facility, announced in late December 2022, was a result of the Health Board’s work with the offices of U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Washington Sen. Patty Murray.

On the site, the Health Board will establish a 92-bed inpatient treatment for substance abuse disorders — key to its longtime goal to re-open and expand its Thunderbird Treatment Center, which closed in 2019.

That 65-bed facility, which offered a 45-day residential treatment program, was located in the Rainier Beach neighborhood in Seattle for 33 years but closed after the Health Board determined that the aging facility no longer met the program’s needs.

The new as-yet-unnamed facility, now slated to open in approximately 18 months, will serve patients seeking recovery from substance abuse disorders, though not offer detox services. Like all other Health Board services, it will be open to all people, but rooted in Native cultural practices and traditional Indian medicine.

Throughout the year, leaders from the Health Board have periodically updated islanders on their plans for an extensive renovation of the building.

The Health Board’s vision for the treatment center, said Esther Lucero (Diné), President and CEO of the Health Board, is to provide a beautiful, spa-like facility for those who need treatment.

“We want to be the Betty Ford of Indian Country,” Lucero said at an event last month celebrating Indigenous Heritage Month hosted by the Health Board at Vashon Center for the Arts.

“We want [those who need services] to move away from some of those risk factors and just come to a place where they can be healed.”

The facility will have different wings and dining rooms for three distinct populations of relatives (as the Health Board refers to all its patients). These three groups will include a 15-bed wing for pregnant and parenting people and their children; a general population; and a 16-bed wing that will serve those who have access to private insurance.

The 16-bed wing, according to the Health Board, will create opportunities for those in need of services who would like more discretion and privacy in their treatment — including current residents of Vashon with access to private insurance, as well as tribal leaders and their family members.

With a 40 to 50-person staff, the facility will provide significant job opportunities for islanders, Health Board leaders said, in a wide range of positions from IT workers to physicians. The Health Board will also seek to engage a wide range of volunteers at the facility, they said.

Last week, during a tour of the facility with Jayapal, Esther Lucero said that the Health Board will also bring its dental van to Vashon, opening its services to all islanders and filling a gap to serve low-income islanders who need dental care.

This service will open as soon as logistically possible, she said.

Another key goal for Lucero is to obtain additional transportation services to Vashon so that those who need treatment can be brought to the facility quickly — a necessity in terms of moving people into treatment as soon as they are ready to enter the facility, whatever their circumstances.

“I’ve been working with King County to get a specialized contract for a 24-hour water taxi,” Lucero said, at the VCA event. “We’ve been talking to tribes about having our own transport system. For example, the Puyallup [Tribe] has seaplanes.” Lucero added that the Health Board was interested in the possibility of working to enhance Vashon’s airport as a means of accessing the island.

Designs for the new facility incorporate requests and lessons from Thunderbird graduates and their families, community members, and conversations with the Health Board’s network of about 340 different federally recognized tribes, she added.

The facility will include a sweat lodge, a ceremonial space with a skylight that captures the movement of the sun, and soft lighting. Natural materials adorning the facility and its furnishing will express a love of nature and the healing properties of Indigenous plants.

The Health Board’s outreach to the Vashon community, since the purchase of the building, has included a large booth at Vashon’s Strawberry Festival and the November event at VCA.

But an August appearance by Health Board leaders at a Vashon-Maury Island Community Council Meeting, Lucero said in November, had been “not very respectfully engaging.”

Calling substance abuse disorder a “symptom of trauma” inflicted on Native Americans in multiple historical ways, she said she would “never apologize for addressing healing in our community.”

In an interview with Joel Moreno, of KOMO 4 News, during Jayapal’s visit to Vashon, Lucero reiterated that message when Moreno asked what she would say to islanders who are critics of the project.

“I would really like for people to trust in the process of open and transparent communication with us, [and] allow us to present the data, which we’ve really tried to do to demonstrate our success,” she said. “[The Health Board] has been in existence for 53 years, and we operated another residential treatment program right in the middle of a neighborhood for over 30 years without incident. And as [Congresswoman Jayapal] has said, they funded this project because we know what we’re doing. And all we want is to invite the community to join us — because if they join us and choose that pathway, they’re going to be joining us in creating a bettter life for our communities, as a whole.”

Elections

In a November race for King Council Council District 8, which includes Vashon, Theresa Mosqueda bested her opponent Sofia Aragon, winning 55% percent of the vote overall. On Vashon, Mosqueda was an even more clear favorite, garnering between 58% and 74% in individual Vashon precincts.

In addition to deciding on a school board race, Vashon voters selected commissioners for several other taxing districts. Most but not all races were uncontested: Park District incumbent Bob McMahon handily won his race against challenger Mike Spranger.

Two new commissioners, Sarah Day and Bill Hamilton, were elected to serve Vashon’s Health Care District and will fill the seats of current commissioners Eric Pryne and Don Wolczko, who did not seek re-election.

Day is a member of Vashon’s Medical Reserve Corps and the former longtime school nurse of Vashon’s school district — a job that garnered her international recognition for her work to increase early childhood vaccinations on the island. Hamilton has had a long career in public policy and has served on the Health Care District’s strategic planning taskforce.

Recently, the Health Care District announced its focus for 2024: bringing an urgent care provider to Vashon, and helping to fund behavioral health care programs primarily aimed at island youth.

Vashon Island Fire & Rescue

A “levy lid lift” measure, put before voters by Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR), passed with yes votes from 61% of islanders in August, despite an energetic opposition campaign by islanders who posited that the increased tax revenue was not necessary.

The property tax measure authorized VIFR to increase its levy rate from about $1.13 per $1,000 of assessed value this year to $1.50 — the maximum allowed by state law — in 2024. The measure also allows the district to increase its levy amount by another six percent per year through 2029, though not to exceed the $1.50 per $1000 assessed value cap.

Passage of the levy lift, supporters said, was critical to upgrading VIFR’s aging fleet, increasing staffing and making other improvements detailed in the district’s recently adopted strategic plan. These included professionally staffing VIFR’s station 56, in Burton, to reduce response times to the South End and Maury, and likely keep homeowners insurance premiums there lower.

Levy revenue will also augment King County EMS Levy funds in a rollout of a new program, Mobile Integrated Health, set to launch in 2024. The program will provide follow-up homecare visits to islanders identified by the district as needing preventative and ongoing health maintenance care.

Following the levy’s passage, Station 56 went live on Oct. 23, staffed with two firefighters per shift. Commissioners have also voted to purchase new ambulances for the district and a new fire engine to replace one that had been recently decommissioned.

VIFR’s 2024 budget calls for hiring two additional firefighter/EMT positions, which will bring the district’s career staff to 22, augmented by volunteer firefighters and EMTs.

Last week, the levy’s success was reflected in another vote by commissioners — to change the way the district bills for hospital transports on Jan. 1, eliminating “balance billing” to islanders for medical transports of Vashon residents. Previously, insurers were billed for the costs of such transports but did not always pay the entire amount. The amount paid by individuals amounted to about $30,000 in revenue for the district, according to Fire Chief Matt Vinci.

The district would now absorb that cost, he said.

“The cost of transport services will be billed to your insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid,” the district announced, in a social media post. “Any additional costs not covered by insurance will be written off against funds received through our fire levy.”

Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly said that Vashon Island Fire & Rescue’s levy lid lift measure would allow the district to raise its levy rate by 6% per year through 2024. The sentence now correctly reads, “The measure allows the district to increase its levy amount by another six percent through 2029, though not to exceed the $1.50 per $1000 assessed value cap.