It’s hard to walk away from nearly $1 million, but the school board may have no other choice.
In February, the Orcas School District was offered $900,000 in federal grant monies to make repairs to the elementary school. To secure the grants, they must come up with $72,000 in matching funds, plus $1 million to complete the entire project, which includes repairing the heating, plumbing, and lighting and winterizing the building. The deadline to complete the repairs is June 2012, so the work must be done this summer.
The board has been looking at $1 million worth of non-voted debt to come up with the matching money, but board members are reluctant to embark on what is essentially an unsecured loan.
“Our hope would be to repair the elementary school this summer, then go out to the public for a small capital levy to pay back the debt we assumed to match the grant,” board chair Janet Brownell told the Sounder. “The school board is acutely aware of the risks of this proposal. Right now it seems we are leaning more towards turning down the grant. Thus, should the public vote at some future time to support repairs to the elementary, the tax burden would be $2 million rather than about $1 million.”
At its regular meeting on March 31, the board agreed it was “uncomfortable” with the idea of non-voted debt and that it could further erode the trust of the community, which has voted down a bond twice in the last year.
“I’m not willing to spend the money without the backing of the voters,” said board member Chris Sutton.
In February 2010, a $35 million bond was narrowly rejected by voters (it earned 55 percent support, shy of the 60 percent super majority needed). In August, a slimmed down version at $27 million was also shot down. The money would have funded replacement of or repairs to most of the campus.
Board member Tony Ghazel said the board is currently “between a rock and a hard place.”
“By saying no to non-voted debt, we are walking away from a $900,000 grant,” he said.
Brownell says they will “absolutely make a decision” at a special meeting on April 13 at 5:30 p.m. in the school library.
“It would be exceedingly helpful to hear from the public about this,” she said.
