Sequim school group gathering information on aging facilities

By Michael Dashiell • August 21, 2024 1:30 am
Sequim Gazette photo by Michel Dashiell / Members of the Sequim School District’s Long Range Facilities Planning Group got a look at Sequim High School’s aging science classrooms. The four classrooms were built in 1967. Adjacent to the classrooms is a storage area with rows upon rows of chemicals used in classroom studies without nearly the ventilation needed, according to Mike Santos, Sequim schools’ Director of Facilities, Operations, and Security.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michel Dashiell / Members of the Sequim School District’s Long Range Facilities Planning Group got a look at Sequim High School’s aging science classrooms. The four classrooms were built in 1967. Adjacent to the classrooms is a storage area with rows upon rows of chemicals used in classroom studies without nearly the ventilation needed, according to Mike Santos, Sequim schools’ Director of Facilities, Operations, and Security.

Sequim School District leaders are once again doing some homework as they consider asking for community assistance to help replace aging buildings and other facilities.

In June and July, Long Range Facilities Planning Group (LRFPG) members got an up-close look at Helen Haller Elementary School and portions of Sequim High School. Group members are charged with providing the district’s board of directors with a plan of action, one that may include a capital projects levy or bond, in early October.

At an Aug. 19 Sequim School Board meeting, board director Michael Rocha noted that the district is considering a multi-phased approach to dealing with facility needs.

“[This is] more comprehensive approach, to break it up into pieces,” he said.

The facilities group will bring thoughts and recommendations about levy or bond measure(s), including the cost of each and suggestion of when to place those on local ballots, to board directors at a special meeting on Oct. 1 or Oct. 3, he said.

“We need to get better at knowing our timetable and not waiting for something to break,” Rocha said.

Board director Larry Jeffryes said he’d like to see the kind of plan a school district he worked at, which had building plans up to 20 and 30 years into the future.

Sequim schools superintendent Regan Nickles noted at the Aug. 19 meeting that even Sequim’s “newer” buildings — Greywolf Elementary and Sequim Middle School — are showing signs of age.

The last bond voters approved was for $25 million in February 1996 to build Sequim Middle School along with new classrooms (H-building) and a playfield at Sequim High School; the middle school opened in 1998. Greywolf Elementary opened in 1991.

Jeffryes said he’d like the district to have a facility improvements plan “so we’re not looking at decrepit middle school 50 years from now.”

Sequim voters have varied their support for bonds and levies for school construction in recent years. Each of Sequim’s most recent four school bond attempts failed to meet the 60% supermajority needed, including an April 2014 proposal for $154.3 million, and proposals in February 2015 ($49.3 million), November 2015 ($49.3 million) and February 2016 ($54 million).

Educational Programs & Operations levies — measures that typically support school programs with additional teaching staff, materials and more — typically pass in Sequim, with its last five attempts exceeding 60% — despite now needing only a 50%-plus-1 majority for passage.

Learn more about the Long Range Facilities Planning Group at tinyurl.com/SEQlongrange.