School Board Selects Design for Remodel

By Margie Doyle

Perry, Mierau to retire, Lund to resign

The Orcas Island School District (OISD) selected Option C for the  facility design to rebuild the district’s buildings. The $11.9M bond approved by Orcas voters last November will finance this construction. Option C, as designed by Mahlum Architects, is pictured. Main elements may be the middle school location on the second floor of the brick “Ellie Milton” building, the demolition of administration offices and their re-siting in the library building, and the addition of a new music building attached to the back wall of the “old” gym.

At its regular board meeting on March 28, teacher Mandy Randolph spoke as a teacher who’s had input into the rebuild design process; “I’ve been really impressed when Mahlum came back with changes. Speaking from the staff standpoint, option C is still not in the realm of most staff members’ comfort.”

Then each board member offered his or her rationale for moving forward.

The Orcas Island School Board accepted Option C to go ahead with the $11.9M remodel of the district’s buildings; at the top is the first floor, the second floor is at the bottom. Red shows middle school, dark green shows library, light green shows OASIS, yellow shows, light blue shows administration offices, light yellow shows art, shop and tech areas, dark yellow shows kitchen, cafeteria and culinary areas, and purple shows the music areas.

Tony Ghazel said, “I trust in Mahlum’s research, presentation and experience; I don’t know what we haven’t asked that we need to ask.”

Scott Lancaster cited the library and middle school buildings as the greatest need and said, “It’s upon us to spend the money as widely as we can across the campus and not pour all the money into two buildings that were not well-constructed.”

Janet Brownell said that she sees the C option as “a difficult transition for teachers. I  don’t want to lessen your viewpoints, I do put a lot of trust in Mahlum that they will make these the best possible classrooms they can. They have done a remarkable job with the resources we have.”

Superintendent Barbara Kline seconded Brownell’s viewpoint, saying, “As we go forward they [the teachers] will have input into the plan.”

Jim Sullivan also agreed, saying, “I appreciate every bit of input from those on the front lines,but it’s time to move…. In the spirit of compromise, the C designs give everybody something.”

OISD President Chris Sutton said, “I appreciate the process; it’s amazing to see all the different options, especially the library building as a flexible space as we move forward, whether administration  or kindergarten occupies the space.”

The job description for a Project Manager for the OISD rebuilding project is near finalization, Kline told the board.

In other news, the Board accepted the retirements of teacher Lyn Perry and Human Resources Manager Sharron Mierau, and the intended resignation of music teacher Martin Lund, effective next September.

Superintendent Kline announced the possibility of acquiring a new (2011) modular building fof 1,300 square feet for transportation costs only. The building is available through the district’s maintenance management consortium. It will address the need for storage, Kline said, as she credited Administrative Executive Assistant Cathy Ferran for researching and obtaining the building.

School Construction came under scrutiny by the board as it heard reports regarding Waldron School’s foundation; the high school roof; and the high school siding project, which began in September 2012 and is now completed.

Brownell and Lancaster expressed their concerns that they should have been more diligent in oversight of the project. Brownell specifically spoke to the contractor and his wife living on school property in a trailer while high school students were attending school.

Brownell suggested that the Educational Services District (ESD) should be contacted to analyze the high school siding project  “as a way to be in a good position moving forward.”

Kline took responsibility for the decision to have the contractors live on campus, saying “It was my mistake.”

Lancaster said, “I  could see going forward with an outside review if it’s at a reasonable price and we have a reasonable expectation of what’s going to happen.”

Brownell said the analysis would look at “factors that will prevent mistakes. We’re a super-small district; we don’t know everything about this process. We can apply [analysis recommendations] as we move forward.”

Ghazel, Sullivan and Sutton questioned the scope and expectations of such oversight. Sutton said, “We already corrected some things,” including the small works roster policy.

Sullivan said, “Moving ahead, we know what we’re not going to do.”

Teacher Paul Evans gave a report from the NW Council on Computers and Education, which was attended by school administrators, tech directors and nine teachers.

The two-day conference, “The 21st Century Classroom,” was designed to “Prepare students for their future, not our past,” said Evans. He presented information on what students would like teachers to do in the 21st century classroom:

• Know tech as well as kids
• Utilize our technology, twitter, blogs etc to teach or do homework
• Use the tech devices they know, like mobile devices
• Use digital books rather than heavy books
• Access to classwork from anywhere: Cloud computing of interest, value to them

He also noted the elements that teachers would like to incorporate in their classrooms:

• Manage course content from a computer
• Use devices students are familiar and comfortable with
• Teach and control display from anywhere in classroom
• Display on large projector
• Access to a computer lab for research and projects
• Access to applications for specific subjects
• Learn how to use technology

Sutton commented on the Council and Evans’  presentation, saying the efforts are  “painting  a clear picture of how to spend tech money.”

Business Manager Keith Whitaker presented financial reports. The Fund Balance shows a higher-than-expected ending balance, which he attributes to receiving “significantly higher tax receipts in February than normal —  10 times higher than last year. We’re  not going to get more dollars; we just got them earlier.”

The total percentage of expenditures  dropped overall to 89 percent of the annual budget, “which is where we’d expect to be at this time of school year,” Whitaker said.

Ghazel cautioned continued monitoring of fund balances and expenditures.

Lancaster expressed some concern about the continued enrollment drop
and asked that the district ask the families of departing students for the reasons why they are leaving the school. Elementary/Middle School Principal Kyle Freeman said that this year, most of the families have left the island.

The board asked that exit interviews be conducted, as the Parent Teacher Student Association(PTSA)  has done in the past. Freeman said that in most cases, the first knowledge of students leaving the school is when they no longer come to class.

Superintendent Kline announced that the district is looking for community members or parents who’d like to serve on the interview panel for the K-6 Principal position opening next September. Interview dates are Friday, April 5, and Monday-Wednesday, April 8 -10.

There are about 18 applicants, Kline said. There is no salary set for this position yet. The district is conducting a salary survey among neighboring districts —  Concrete, Darrington and San Juan among them. The board will discuss the matter at its next board budget workshop on Thursday, April 11 at 5:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Administrative Review Committee continues to meet monthly. Sutton asked “What do we want as the ‘deliverable’ from this? If the recommendation is to hire a fulltime High School principal, we’re moving forward on that.”

Ghazel said, “We need to resolve the problem of too many things for the superintendent and principal to do.”

Buck Park’s transfer from the school district to Orcas Island Park and Recreation District is still in process, Kline said, and may be completed before this summer.

As High School Principal, Kline reported that students have decided to have a private Prom this year, rather than a school-sponsored dance.  She said that means parents and the community should know that a private prom won’t be an Associated Student Body (ASB) event; there can’t be class meetings about it; tickets must not say it is a school-sponsored event; and teachers can’t serve as chaperones.

The School District and the Public Library continue their discussion about joint operations. Kline suggested that using the school buildings for a computer class, for example, may be a good trial run of their collaboration over the summer.

Future dates:

• OISD Budget Workshop April 11 at the school library, 5:30 p.m.
• Student Chef Competition and Taco Dinner April 6, sponsored by Farm to Cafeteria committee
• Annual School Board meeting on Waldron Island April 25
• Monthly School Board meeting in School Library, April 25 at 5:30 p.m.
• Food for Thought at Camp Four May 25, sponsored by Orcas Island Education Foundation.