Schools and safety top list of concerns

By DEBERA CARLTON HARRELL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Public safety and educational excellence are high on the list of concerns shared by most Mill Creek residents.

One reason Mill Creek incorporated was so it could control its own police force, as well as its destiny. The ratio of police officers to citizens is 1 to 560, said Mill Creek Police Chief John Klei. By contrast, the ratio in Snohomish County as a whole is 1 to 1,540.

Wallace Tiffany, security supervisor for the Mill Creek Association, says his private security force provides "another set of eyes" for association members around the clock. Burglaries top the list of area crimes.

A recent survey showed that 40 percent of Jackson High School students thought drugs were a serious problem. When interviewed, some students said kids turn to drugs, mostly marijuana, because there's not enough to do in Mill Creek.

Said Klei: "There are drugs, certainly, just like everywhere else. You don't leave the real world behind when you come to Mill Creek. It's not this separate planet. You don't drive across the moat, and there's no forced seal that keeps out the bad element."

Educational excellence is expected from a well-educated citizenry, says Rolynn Anderson, Jackson High School's principal. The school system is part of the Everett School District.

"We call it the 'achievable stretch,' " Anderson said of the school's academic requirements, which disallow credit for any grade lower than a C.

"Mill Creek in a lot of ways is Fantasyland," said David Friedl, a former IBM programmer who teaches computer classes at the high school.

Gazing around a $90,000 computer lab, Friedl said, "These kids have resources, like this technology, that are not available to kids elsewhere."

Continued:

• Clean, tidy community a 'suburban nirvana'
• 'Pride in home ownership' is city's motto
• Even paradise has growing pains
• It began with a clear vision
• A 'master plan' guides the city