A bus commute and ferry ride to the mainland were the last things on Rosanna Martinez's mind today.

After all, today was the first day of middle school for the 11-year-old from Anderson Island. She was thinking about stuff any student new to a school would wonder about: class schedules, lockers, her cell phone.

She has plenty of time to grumble about her two-hour commute that I mentioned in my previous post.

"I'm nervous and excited," Rosanna said while chatting with friends on the ferry.

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Today was a big day for sixth-graders from Anderson Island.

Not only is it the first day of school, but five students for the first time embarked on a two-hour trek that will become their routine until high school graduation.

The students of the island community are part of the Steilacoom School District, and last year attended elementary school at Anderson Island's two-room schoolhouse.

They've since graduated to middle school, and this year they're attending school on the mainland, starting at Pioneer Middle School.

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For years, school officials have been lamenting the state's underfunding of transportation.

Without adequate funding from the state, they say, districts must devote more and more of their local levy dollars to get kids to school.

One of their loudest charges: the state doesn't reimburse districts for transporting students whose homes or daycares lie outside a one-mile radius from school. And instead of calculating the actual route mileage, the distance is measured as a direct line from school to home or daycare. Or, in the colloquial, "as the crow flies."

Actually, says Allan Jones with the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, the state does provide some money to bus kids within the one-mile radius. But not much.

Jones, director of pupil transportation, says the state gives districts some funding based on the total number of kids in kindergarten through through fifth grade within the one-mile radius.

The original intent was to help districts defray the cost of transporting youngsters who faced hazardous walking conditions, even though they lived close to school.

But it's a lower rate than what the state funds for students living outside the one-mile minimum. And the districts don't have to have hazardous walking conditions to get the money. They don't even have to use the money to transport kids within that radius.

Here's how Jones explains it, and the "crow flies" business in an e-mail to The News Tribune.

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Here's part of my story on the Aboubakr property in Washington's oldest town:

A proposal to develop a controversial piece of land in Steilacoom is facing another fight with residents who want to maintain the town’s character.

The opposition insists a plan to build 12 homes overlooking Puget Sound would create traffic, harm the neighborhood’s ecosystem and eliminate the “Tunnel of Trees” — a scenic strip that has become synonymous with Washington’s oldest town.

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Kevin Cavanagh with Pierce County Information Technology points out that the link we published in the printed paper for the weather tracker system left off one symbol.

The correct link is http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/PC/

If you can't bring it up, click here.

On the left side, it's titled "How hot is it?"

It's pretty cool. According to the site, "Eleven weather stations around the county record temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and more. Data is updated every 15 minutes."

Steilacoom Mayor Ron Lucas directed today that American flags on city buildings remain at half mast through next Tuesday to honor a local soldier who died last week in Afghanistan.

He also encouraged city residents to do that same thing.

Governor Chris Gregoire directed flags on public buildings throughout the state be lower Wednesday to honor 1LT Brian Bradshaw, 24, who died June 25 in in Kheyl, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when an improved explosive devise was detonated near him.

Bradshaw grew up in Steilacoom and graduated from Bellarmine Preparatory School and Pacific Lutheran University.

Bradshaw was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division in Fort Richardson, Alaska. His unit deployed in stages to Afghanistan beginning in February and Bradshaw arrived in March.

Bradshaw is the first Pierce County service member to die in Afghanistan in more than a year.

Funeral services will be held Monday at 11 a.m. at St. John Bosco Catholic Church in Lakewood. He will be buried later that afternoon at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent.

Doris Jairala has been a faithful bus rider the past five years, taking the 53 route a few times a week to get to her housekeeping jobs.

Driving isn't an option for the 62-year-old University Place resident. She suffers from seizures and isn't allowed to get behind the wheel.

(To the left: Doris Jairala, of University Place, rides the Number 53 bus to her job as a housekeeper last month. The route will be eliminated in July as Pierce Transit reduces less-used routes such as hers. Joe Barrentine/The News Tribune)

So that means for her job, she hops on the bus to Lakewood, Steilacoom, UP and any other community in which her work takes her.

But she will be one of the thousands of riders who will have to find a new bus beginning July 12. Pierce Transit, squeezed by the economic downturn, opted to eliminate or reduce service on routes throughout the county that don't have a high ridership.

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UPDATE: Postal Service spokesman Ernie Swanson left a message on my voicemail today confirming what Loveless said. Steilacoom's four mail carriers are moving to Lakewood, but post office boxes and the retail window are staying.

We received an e-mail last week from a Steilacoom resident who said she spoke with her mail carrier. The e-mailer learned that the carrier would now be working out of Lakewood, and she thought that Washington's oldest town would lose its only U.S. Postal Service branch as well.

I haven't been able to touch base with the postal service, however Steilacoom Town Administrator Paul Loveless said the Post Office isn't leaving.

Loveless said he spoke with Tacoma Postmaster Robert Galtrude, who assured him the Post Office's retail presence on Lafayette Street will not change.

The only change is carriers will no longer work out of the Steilacoom branch. They'll be based out of Lakewood. The move is a cost-savings measure for the Postal Service, which may face a deficit of more than $6 billion this year.

Residents won't notice a change in service, Loveless said.

She stands 6 feet high, school bell in hand and keeping a watchful eye on her students.

But the bronze statue of pioneering schoolteacher Chloe Clark doesn’t overlook an untouched prairie or a backdrop of Evergreen trees, scenes she might have seen when she first started teaching at Fort Nisqually (now DuPont) in 1840 at a mission school. She was the first school teacher to arrive in the South Sound, historians say.

(To the right is a picture of Chloe Clark. It isn't the bronze statue, but it gives an idea of what it looks like. Key Peninsula sculptor John Jewell produced the real one)

Instead, Clark's statue overlooks buildings and asphalt near the Bronze Works foundry in Tacoma. The group of history enthusiasts who raised $86,000 for the statue's creation is ecstatic that it's complete.

But they'll have to wait until 2010 for the statue's installation at Chloe Clark Elementary School in DuPont. The Steilacoom Historical School District must perform about $100,000 worth of landscape improvements, including clearing trees and readying the area for a pedestal for the statue.

"Are we disappointed? I think so," said Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Hemphill, chairman of the Chloe Clark Memorial Committee. "But it is a lot of work."

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Steilacoom Historical School District spokeswoman Nancy Covert sent word of when the community can hear from the two finalists for interim school superintendent.

Community forums are scheduled at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday, at the Pioneer Middle School cafeteria, 511 Chambers St., Steilacoom.

Last Saturday, the Steilacoom Historical School board met with five semi-finalists before whittling the field down to two: Barry Gourley and Cathy Davidson.

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The U.S. Coast Guard will honor the crew of the M/V Christine Anderson, a Pierce County vessel on the Anderson Island ferry run, for its quick thinking that saved a kayaker last year.

Coast Guard Capt. Suzanne Englebert will grace the Pierce County Council meeting with her nautical presence and lead the ceremony. The meeting starts 5:30 p.m., at Steilacoom Town Hall, 1717 Lafayette St.

Here is the county's full press release:

The United States Coast Guard will present official commendations to the crew of the Pierce County ferry during Tuesday’s in-district meeting of the County Council.

Coast Guard Capt. Suzanne Englebert will preside over the ceremony, which recognizes the crew of the Christine Anderson for life-saving actions last summer. Tuesday’s Council meeting will be held in District 6 at 5:30 p.m. at Steilacoom Town Hall.

“A true mariner knows the dangers, a professional mariner prevents the dangers, and a lifesaver is a professional mariner who responds to save others from danger. With these awards we salute both professional mariners and lifesavers," said Capt. Englebert, who serves as the USCG Commander Sector Seattle and Captain of the Port for the entire Puget Sound region.

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You might have caught this news update about Lakewood leading a $500,000 effort to improve Interstate traffic near Fort Lewis.

Given its proximity and relationship with the installation, the city is the ideal candidate to take the lead on the project. The Lakewood City Council started the process Monday night by approving $500,000 worth of studies to the corridor.

City officials say Fort Lewis is somewhat unique from other installations in that it’s located next to an urban area. I-5 gets nasty in the morning and afternoon when traffic from the post, along with McChord Air Force Base, floods nearby roads.

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