The Sequim School District’s next bond proposal is taking shape.
But school board members want to further refine what community members would vote for as they seek to replacing aging buildings and prepare for larger kindergarten classes.
On Monday evening, board members affirmed what Sequim schools superintendent Kelly Shea proposed earlier this year — to ask voters for about $47 million worth of projects that includes building a new elementary school, add classrooms and other structures at Greywolf Elementary, add six science classrooms at Sequim High School and tear down an unused portion of the Sequim Community School.
They also affirmed a desire to see that new elementary school built to the east of downtown Sequim — not to be built on either property the district now owns or where the school it would replace (Helen Haller Elementary) now stands.
But a secondary list that Shea asked board members to consider — one that would modernize the district’s base kitchen, retrofit some of Sequim High’s antiquated science classrooms, refurbish two buildings at Helen Haller and transform part of the community school into a maintenance shop — are getting closer scrutiny.
Those projects would add about $6.5 million to a bond proposal.
While board director Bev Horan asserted she’d like both sets of projects on the coming bond, director Mike Howe said the second set of projects could use some public input.
“I’m more concerned about what’s going to pass,” Howe said. “I believe the initial recommendation would pass.”
The district hosts three forums/walking tours to get more input about the bond proposal (see box) in early November.
Shea said his goal is to have information to board members by their Nov. 17 meeting.
Howe said he supports putting the bond proposal to voters in 2015 and early on.
“I think we need to run it in February,” Howe said. “The sooner, the better.”
State match funding
Shea said a conversation with state education leaders indicates Sequim can receive more than $4.3 million in what are called “state matching funds” with the newest bond proposal, a carryover of a 1998 bond that, among other projects, funded building of the Sequim Middle School.
The only caveat, Shea said, is that the district would have to demolish the unused portion of the community school and complete the elementary school projects targeted with his initial proposal.
Adding the second set of bond projects and taking state match funds would leave the overall bond proposal at about $49.2 million and at a tax rate of about $2.22 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2016, Shea noted.
“When I started this summer, one of my goals was to get this bond (proposal) under $50 million,” Shea said.
Initiative 1351
Shea told school board directors the potential impact of statewide Initiative 1351 — one that mandates teacher-to-student rations for grades kindergarten-third — won’t have as much of an impact on Sequim as he’d initially thought.
“If we don’t have the space, we don’t have to reduce class size,” Shea told the board Monday night. “My first concern is that, were this to pass, we would have to immediately add 14 new classrooms. “
But, he added, some districts will be required to add teachers.
“The impact of this initiative on our district is negligible,” Shea said, “(but) this is going to be a problem in Washington state.”
And more
In other board action, the school board:
• offered a preschool teaching position to Margaret King
• offered an assistant volleyball coach position to Clarice Baker
• offered a health room paraeducator position to Cassie Cobb
• accepted letters of resignation from: John Morton, Greywolf Elementary School technology paraeducator; Kris Henrikson, Sequim Middle School basketball coach; and Cynthia Fernie, Helen Haller Elementary paraeducator
• approved out-of-state/overnight travel to Sequim High School band members for their participation in the 2015 Anaheim Heritage Festival in California
• approved out-of-district/overnight travel to Sequim High School choir/ensemble members to participate in the Warm Beach Festival of Lights in Stanwood
The next regularly scheduled Sequim School Board meeting is at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3.
Public forums
The Sequim School District hosts a number of forums/walking tours asking for feedback regarding school construction bond projects. The forums start at Sequim High School science building B-3 and includes a tour of the school district’s base kitchen and Olympic Peninsula Academy classrooms. A district van is available for those who may need assistance getting from one tour site to another.
• 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 5
• 3 p.m., Monday, Nov. 10
• 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 13
For more information, call 582-3260.
