Jonathan Martin

Mead student Naelly Galvan, middle, from Mexico helps preschool and kindergarten kids learn to count to five in Spanish. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Mel West, member of the Nevada-Lidgerwood steering committee, hopes funding cuts won't threaten projects like the new COPS station on Addison and Wellesley. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

With the success of community development projects, it is inevitable that one occasionally will have a rough ride. Such is the case with the Nevada-Lidgerwood COPS shop, funded through a community development grant. After two years of work, the police substation continues to languish in paperwork purgatory.

Colby Parkins evaluates a water test during science class. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Mead School Board member John Riherd will step down in November to avoid a conflict of interest. Riherd, an attorney, has joined the Perkins Coie law firm, which has done business with the school district and is being considered for future contracts.

Spokane drug enforcement officers seized 63 pot plants worth about $63,000 and pot-growing paraphernalia from a North Side residence last week. Police, serving a search warrant based on an anonymous tip, arrested Richard Townsend, 30, and Dee Anne Smith, 38, for conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance. Both were released Oct. 11 on their own recognizance after a night in jail. Townsend and Smith were not listed on a search warrant filed with Spokane County. According to the warrant, officers were looking for a 21 year-old white male. As of Tuesday, he had not been arrested.

Compared to what they had in their old digs, the volunteers at Fire District 4's Station 44 on the Newport Highway are working in luxury. Instead of a station a little bigger than a double garage, volunteers now live in the station.

Mike Hoover, 8, concentrates on his juggling routine. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Betty Campo, left, and Tania Beier help dish up kapana dinners at the 60th annual Greek Festival. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Following a nationwide trend, the Deer Park School District has equipped its school buses to carry surveillance cameras. Deer Park is the latest district in the area to buy into the idea that an extra eye on its buses will mean fewer discipline problems and fewer distractions for drivers. "Just having the camera on the bus calms them down," said Ed Dillman, a Deer Park bus driver for 12 years. "They know they are being watched."

Ruth Dearing visits the newly remodeled library at Rogers High School. Dearing led the drive to get the money to upgrade the facility. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Like a weatherman trying to follow hurricanes, District 81 planning director Ned Hammond tries to give warning, prepare for crisis, then offer theories to explain the unexplainable. This fall, student enrollment figures for North Side schools are as erratic as a storm. In the same West Central neighborhood, Garfield Elementary School added 32 students and Holmes Elementary School lost 35. "We just have an awful lot of movement within the school district," said Hammond. "In some cases we have neighborhoods that are very stable. Others ... are in the process of turning over, which happens every 20 years or so."

Police have arrested an 18 year-old North Side man for his role in a shooting at the Electron Palace last Friday. Joshua James Bailey, who lives at 7317 N. Colton, turned himself in Tuesday and was booked on first-degree assault. He remained in custody Tuesday on a $15,000 bond. The shooting happened near midnight, when four people were leaving the video parlor at 7452 N. Division.The four were walking across a parking lot to their car. Another car, with Bailey in the passenger's seat, drove by, and Bailey yelled a name at a man in the foursome, according to witnesses. When the man responded, the car stopped and Bailey, holding a gun, got out, witnesses told police.

Eileen Swanstrom leads her class through some steps. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

FOR THE RECORD: Tuesday, September 26, 1995 The Washington Drug Free Youth program proposed for schools in Nine Mile Falls is sponsored by community members and not the school district. A story in Sunday's paper was not clear on the schools' role with the program.

Renee Bauer and her friend Susan Smith. Family photo

At church, home, work, the grocery store, the gas station and just about everywhere else she goes, Sally Merriwether hears the same question: "Do you think my kid could get into school?" In the past, Merriwether, principal of Assumption Catholic School, has been glad to hear the question. Enrollment had been lagging and the school, run by Assumption Catholic Church, was always happy to have another sheep in the fold. But a growing waiting list at Assumption and other Catholic schools on the North Side means principals like Merriwether answer with a polite "no" and a request for a phone number.

1. Bill Baumgartner, right, gets help from Rogers teacher Doug McGill as they review note-taking techniques. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review 2. Jacob Harshman hands binders out to his classmates during a GOLD class for Rogers High School freshmen. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

A 19-year-old Spokane man was arrested this week after allegedly threatening a North Side woman with a knife and hitting the woman and her seven-year-old daughter. Benjamin N. Garris was booked Saturday on second- and thirddegree assault charges after police received a complaint of a domestic violence incident on North Magnolia. The woman, 36, alleged that Garris, an aquaintance, showed up at her house Saturday morning and hit her daughter across the back.

Catherine Offutt, right, and her pinochle partner, Nadine Gile, explain the game of pinochle. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

North Central chemistry teacher Jim Slavicek was crowned king of chemistry during a Dow Chemical sponsored performance at the school. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

The new Suncrest sheriff's substation offers neighborhood patrols, school safety information and midwife services. Midwifery? The Suncrest substation - the first in Stevens County to be modeled after Spokane's successful COPS program - got an unusual call last week from a woman on the verge of giving birth.

Mead High School is considering a switch to a schedule in which students would have just three classes a day.

While buses line up in a yellow wall outside Hillyard's Arlington Elementary School, third-graders Ryan and Robbie Benson hop a cab at taxpayer expense. Because of student safety concerns, Spokane School District 81 cannot stop a bus in front of the Bensons' home along busy Market Street north of Francis Avenue.