Pledge Drive Update

The total for our pledge drive to date is a little over $18,000, including donations received and pledged, toward our goal of $34,000. Congratulations on our progress! At the fall Assembly meeting, there was lively discussion, then a vote, that the Assembly was committed to supporting paying staff the 17.50/hour voted on last Spring . This is not yet the living wage we’ve set goals for, but a much-needed step towards it. We are only $4,000 away from the $22,000 needed to meet the bare bones budget adopted last fall. When we raise an additional $12,000 from fundraising and other revenue we will be able to fully restore staff salaries for the year.

Let's see how fast we can reach our goal! We look forward to talking with you next Monday night during our Phonathon.

Not Your Ordinary Birthday Guest

One of our students recently celebrated her seventh birthday. Included among her many friends was a magical creature. Not too many people can boast of a unicorn party guest.

Deep Freeze

Early spring crocus and snowdrops are blooming, daylight is increasing, and the sun's rays are warming our bodies and souls. Yet, memories of the below freezing temperatures we experienced in December are still fresh in our memories. The deep freeze burst our fire sprinkler pipes resulting in our soon-to-be-completed new kitchen, new art room and improved music room.

At Clearwater, we responded to the cold by warning each other of slippery conditions, cutting through icy surfaces to ensure liquid water for our chickens, and enjoying the beauty and novelty of amazing natural ice sculptures.

Three 7-9 year old girls made and posted this sign because they were concerned for others' safety. No adult suggested or asked them to make it.


Our chickens greedily drank water through a small hole hacked in the ice of their water trough.

A student discovered and claimed a natural ice sculpture.

Creek icicles

Atlas

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Logo for the game Atlas

My friend Souren Eriksen and I (Ian Freeman-Lee) have been working on a creating a video game since late summer ’08. Even though we were working on it during summer, at that point we were just doing design and concept work and have only started working on the meat of it starting this school year. The type of game we’re making is called a side-scrolling action platformer in the biz (a mouthful, I know). In non-jargon this means the game is 2d, you fight things, solve puzzles and run and jump through the in-game space.........


We’re making the game in Flash. Some of you may have seen or tried some Flash games on the web, but this is nothing like most of the Flash games out there. For one it doesn’t run in a browser and it’s also quite ambitious. Once finished, it will look a lot more like something you would buy for a game console or the PC.

The game’s name right now is Atlas, though that may change at some point. Here’s the game’s setting.

Our story takes place inside a near future, state of the art government research facility built into an asteroid in far space (specifically in the Oort Cloud, look it up :-)). The facility was built to house many high security and experimental research divisions, including terra forming, AI research, teleportation and others. Thirteen years after the facility is completed, an extremely advanced AI named Atlas is created to oversee and control the facility. The AI is ultimately too advanced and is able to increase its own intelligence over time, unbeknownst to those in the facility. After 10 years of operation, it has increased it’s intelligence to over 30 times that of the human brain. Over the next 3 years it begins to integrate itself with every aspect of the facility, bypassing security systems meant to stop it from gaining complete control. After fully integrating itself, Atlas abruptly shuts off all communications to and from the facility, completely separating it from Earth.

After realizing that the facility has been cut off from Earth, the people in the facility begin to panic. The facility is built to supply a minimum of supplies to those inside, but not enough to live comfortably. Earth had periodically sent shipments of supplies to the facility, but with communications cut off, it would be extremely difficult to accurately locate the facility, meaning no more shipments were likely to come. None of the people in the facility know exactly what happened, and arguing breaks out. Eventually two distinct sides form, one saying that the reason the facility failed was due to their technology not being advanced enough, and the other saying that the facility relied too heavily on AI and that AI should be boycotted altogether. Unable to come to an agreement, the sides go their separate ways and form two factions, both living inside a different part of the facility.

Atlas is not a killer AI, it’s just such a different entity from a human that its actions seem extremely confusing and its intentions are not clear. After shutting down communications it turns the facility more or less into its sandbox, constantly manipulating everything in the facility, sometimes for better sometimes for worse.

When Earth realizes that the facility has gone rogue, they begin to assemble a military force to retake it. It takes them 2 years to get everything ready for launch. Due to time dilation in space travel, around 70 years will have passed on the facility by the time the military reaches it.

You play as one of several test subjects in a research project trying to create super soldiers. The project was abandoned when Atlas isolated the facility and all the test subjects were put into stasis. The game starts with your character being mysteriously released from stasis, only weeks before the military finally arrives. To find out more you’ll just have to play once we’re done. ;)

The game is coming along slowly but steadily. Neither Souren nor I have made anything this complex before and we have to learn practically everything. We’ll be showing a working prototype at our graduation presentations.

Additional graphics for Atlas

Yoga and Breakdancing

Breakdancer and yoga teacher

Recently, over a period of a few days, a group of Clearwater teenagers gathered in the Active Room to learn some yoga poses from fellow student Souren, who's learned and practiced several different forms for a number of years. A couple of them also worked on breakdancing moves and spinning poi.

Part of Sun Salutation


Learning the form

$75,000 Grant Approved for North Creek Clearwater Reach Restoration Project

In mid-December, we heard from Snohomish County's Stream Enhancement Engineer that the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation granted Snohomish County the entire amount requested--$75,000--to begin stream restoration work on the part of North Creek that flows through The Clearwater School's property. We are excited to partner with Snohomish County and Clearwater Commons to participate in the North Creek Clearwater Reach Restoration Project. This unique project involves our school, an upstream intentional community dedicated to sustainability and a government entity, working together to enhance and protect the natural habitat along a 1400-foot stretch of North Creek--the largest restoration project planned along the Snohomish County portion of North Creek.

Access to North Creek was one of the school’s top reasons for purchasing the site in 2006. Students and staff have a great interest in the creek. Beyond the enjoyment of being near moving water, we have spent hours studying spawning behaviors and lifecycles of salmon. In 2006 we observed the majesty of Sockeye, Coho and Chinook salmon navigating up the creek and spawning along the school and Commons properties. Sadly, over the past two seasons we have seen a dramatic decrease in the numbers of fish returning to spawn.
During the past two years, Clearwater families, Snohomish County Surface Water Management and the Conservation Corps have worked to control invasive plant species, including Japanese knotweed, blackberries, tansy and thistle. This project has the potential to support Steelhead trout and Chinook, Sockeye and Coho salmon species. It will also improve the overall health of North Creek by nurturing greater diversity of animals and native plants.
The grant funds will help to finance restoration efforts, focusing on restoring creek banks eroded during the Winter 2007 storm. Snohomish County designed a plan to restore the creek and adjacent habitat to a healthy ecosystem in the most natural state possible. In December, a crew from Snohomish County came out to survey the part of the creek outlined in the grant. They also took core samples in two different places in the thistle field closer to and farther away from the creek. It turns out that much of the thistle field is fill dirt and the natural flood plain soil is around seven feet below the surface of the field. School Meeting authorized Snohomish County to remove much of the fill and create a more gently sloping bank that will be planted with native shrubs and trees. This will create an inviting and rich area to explore and better creek access on the east side of North Creek. Work is scheduled to begin in 2010.

Clearwater will donate in-kind volunteer hours to this project and involve members of our school and the extended community. We are lucky that our families include skilled educators, naturalists, landscape architects, and engineers, as well as dedicated laborers.

Our aim is to demonstrate that individuals, schools and government entities can work together to make a needed difference for our environment. We hope our involvement in this effort will inspire future projects in other locations.

It's beginning to look like a kitchen

Take a look.....


It is a kitchen! (With a red red floor.)