Forks School Board to decide tonight on whether to put bond measures on ballot
By Paige Dickerson, Peninsula Daily News
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The bond would be to complete phase two of replacing the aging high school, Superintendent Diana Reaume said.
Reaume and a committee of citizens which has been working on the issue will present two ballot proposals to the board at the meeting at 6 p.m. in the administrative board room, 411 S. Spartan Ave.
The two ballot measures up for review include one which would replace the old parts of the high school and another to build a new sports stadium.
The sports stadium measure could not be passed unless the high school bond passes.
The bond for the high school would total about $11 million, matched by about $7 million in state grants from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
"This is probably a once-in a lifetime opportunity," Reaume said.
Because the law currently reads that the state matches funds based on a district's entire enrollment, funds will be matched based on students who physically attend Forks' schools as well as the online school the district hosts, Insight School of Washington.
The Insight School more than doubles the enrollment total.
"We have been told that this will likely change in the spring legislative session," Reaume said.
"So that is one reason we decided to move forward with this.
"We can get $7 million right now, but once the wording changes, it will be more like $1.5 million — so we don't want to pass up $5.5 million.
"There are options for exemptions for seniors that fall into different categories.
"But from our perspective this is truly an opportunity which we will not have again after this legislative session."
Not apply to stadium
Because the state-matching grants would not apply to the stadium, Reaume said, the committee decided to split the measure up for the board — and the voters — to decide on.
Rebuilding the stadium would add an additional $4 million to the project.
Doing just the high school alone would mean the tax rate would start at about $1.82 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
If both propositions were approved on the ballot, the total bond would be about $15.5 million and the tax rate would start at about $2.34 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
Phase one of the project occurred about five years ago and took most of the classrooms out of the historical 1925 portion of the building, Reaume said.
Everything else
Phase two would remove everything else.
"We are being told that we must move the administrative offices out of there now because of building codes," she said.
For the next year, the administrative offices will be housed in the building set up for Forks Virtual High School, next door to the high school.
"We also want to be able to tie in the boiler project which is getting ready to go," School Board chairman Bill Rohde said.
"Our current boiler system is an antiquated one that we keep together with Band-Aids.
"We really want to be able to tie this project in with the construction on the replacement of the high school."
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: July 28. 2008 9:00PM