Parents lead discussion on school safety

Parents are continuing the conversation about school safety with school board members and district officials.

At the March 19 school board meeting, one parent spoke to the board about a parent led group concerned about safety at Sequim Schools.

Jerry Mote, a former Navy Seal and parent, presented to the board about “Parents for Safe Schools” a parent group that is collaborating with security resources, such as Security Services Northwest, Inc., former military, and former and current law enforcement to offer their support to the board on how the district can increase safety.

The group met earlier this month to discuss how it can help with safety measures at Sequim schools.

“Our goal is to actively pursue a multi-layer approach to facilitate communication, community, fair confidence, and measurable results to ensure safe and secure schools,” Mote said.

“We’re here in an effort to support our schools.”

He said the group has short- and long-term goals for security it would like to help the district with and immediate fixes and improvements, such as suggesting safety buckets be put in every classroom, locks be put on the inside of classroom doors, getting current safety protocol up to speed, using blackout window coverings and training for all teachers and students in threat awareness.

Mote said the group would like to raise funds for safety measures and work with the schools’ safety committee.

“We believe it is time to have a group focused solely on safety and security to keep our school risk as low as possible,” he said.

The parent group will have another meeting at 2 p.m. on March 25, at Security Services Northwest, Inc.

Director Robin Henrikson asked Mote if he could provide a copy of this information to the board members about the group’s short and long term goals.

Directors Jim Stoffer and Brian Kuh, and Superintendent Gary Neal also attended the parent group meeting held earlier this month.

Stoffer said the district should have greater parent input in school security and acknowledged the parent group for starting the conversation. Board president Heather Short said there has been discussion about the formation of a security task force or coalition for Sequim schools but the board wants to look into the topic more.

“We just need to look into the rules and WSSDA (Washington State School Directors’ Association) guidelines for forming something along those lines,” she said.

If the board were to consider collaborating with the parent group and its security resources, Short said it could be a good resource for the district.

“I think it could be a fantastic partnership for us to have, I just don’t know how it’s going to look,” she said.

She said all options are on the table at this point, but the board has not had any discussion about armed guards or arming teachers or staff at this point.

Other board reports and updates

The board held a public hearing on a Limited General Obligation Bond of $2,255,000 presented by Trevor Carlson of PiperJaffray.

The hearing was regarding the non-voted debt issuance and financial plan for the bond that would be delivered to the district in May. The district would use this bond to cover the rest of the remaining cost for the district’s capital projects with a cost of issuance of $40,000.

At the next board meeting on April 16, the board will be presented with the bids for the bond and the board will vote to approve the bond resolution and execution of the bond purchase agreement.

In August 2017, the board approved two resolutions that allowed the district to access a separate bond of $3.5 million of non-voted debt with a 1.71 percent interest rate. The district will then pay off these bonds with the money that is accumulated from the capital project levy money collected from 2018-2021.

Sequim resident Joy Helmer presented to the board about a Compassionate Listening training event that is going to be offered to the Sequim community on April 7 at Sequim City Hall. Helmer asked if the board would endorse or support the event, not financially. The board approved to endorse the event with director Henrikson abstaining.

Steve McIntire presented a budget and finance update to the board and said the district’s budget was healthy for the most part. He said he is still working on the district’s budget for next year, including enrollment numbers. He said the district was down in its actual enrollment numbers at about 60 students, which amounts to about $400,000.

He said the district is reporting what it needs to report and doing all the rights things but it is a matter of not having the students there.

The board approved:

• the district calendar for 2018-2019 and 2019-2021

• revised the 2017-2018 meeting schedule

• at second reading a deletion to Title 1 Parental Involvement

• at second reading a deletion to remediation program

• at second reading updates to the Learning Assistance Program (previously named Remediation Programs)

• to conduct a climate survey of the district for 2018. Board members said the cost would be about $3,000 to do the survey.

Resignations from the district:

• Sequim High School Agriculture Science teacher, Scott Chichester, effective July 15

• Greywolf Elementary third grade teacher, Mark Knudson, effective March 16

• Sequim High School Language Arts teacher, Katherine McKeon, effective June 15