Last week’s Olympic Medical Center board of commissioners meeting was just the most recent in a series of presentations by Sequim School District staffers and advocates for a $49.2 million school construction bond proposal, set to go to voters in February.
Sequim schools superintendent Kelly Shea told commissioners about the plan, and while commissioners didn’t draw a resolution to publicly support the Sequim proposal or a Port Angeles School District bond proposal they learned about on Dec. 17, commissioners did indicate they would discuss such a resolution at their next meeting set for Jan. 7.
“One of the main questions we get from our younger doctors, (is) … they ask about the schools,” OMC board president Jim Leskinovich said. “We all know how important it is to have good school systems.”
“This is not a school board decision,” Shea told commissioners. “This is a community decision.”
Shea noted that the Sequim School District has more than 20 portables in place, buildings that he said are supposed to be temporary. Some of them are more than 20 years old.
“We need permanent solutions,” Shea told the OMC board. “That’s what we’re looking for here.”
And while Shea isn’t allowed to openly advocate that citizens vote to approve the bond plan, the group Citizens for Sequim Schools is.
“I think we’ve found something the community can support,” Jim Stoffer, Citizens for Sequim Schools bond campaign chairman, said. “It’s pretty positive (so far).”
For more information about Citizens for Sequim Schools, see www.facebook.com/CitizensForSequimSchools.
Sequim School District’s board of directors is asking voters to consider a $49 million bond to help build a new elementary school, add science classrooms at Sequim High School, add classrooms at Greywolf Elementary School and complete several other projects district officials say are critical to the health of the district.
Upcoming bond presentations
• Jan. 8 — 6 p.m., public forum, school district board room (533 N. Sequim Ave.)
• Jan. 14 — Sodexo staff
• Jan. 15 — 11:30 a.m., Noon Rotary club; 5:30 p.m., North Peninsula Building Association
• Jan. 16 — 7 a.m., Sequim Sunrise Rotary club
• Jan. 22 — 10 a.m., coffee chat (with community members, Supt. Kelly Shea)
• Jan. 28 — 6 p.m., Sequim Prairie Grange
For more information about bond presentations or to inquire about a group scheduling a presentation, call the district office at 582-3260.
