BRINNON — A $199,987 state Healthy Kids-Healthy Schools grant will allow this small South County school to remodel a kitchen that has been in use for 40 years.
“When we applied for the grant, we didn’t think we’d get much,” said Patricia Beathard, the school’s superintendent and principal.
“We expected that all the money would go to large systems like the Seattle School District and didn’t think itty-bitty Brinnon would get anything.”
The allocation is part of a $5 million grant approved by the state Legislature this year that will help 466 schools from 93 districts promote healthy meals, physical activity and water consumption.
The Brinnon award was the second highest in the state, exceeded only by a $200,000 allocation to the Franklin Pierce School District in Tacoma for garden structures and greenhouses.
Five Port Angeles schools — Dry Creek, Hamilton and Jefferson elementary schools and Port Angeles and Lincoln high schools — each received $1,600 to finance water-bottle filling stations.
The grants were administered by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, which received $17 million in requests from 150 school districts.
The Brinnon grant will fund replacement of all kitchen appliances — expanding the two cooking burners to a six-burner range — as well as expand the kitchen area, replace the floors and replace the old fold-down cafeteria tables, Beathard said.
Under a separate grant, the district installed a new walk-in refrigerator-freezer earlier this year.
Beathard said the district must complete additional paperwork. Once done, it will receive the funds that will allow the project to be put out to bid.
She hopes the project will be completed over the summer in time to go into service at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year.
The school has 65 students from preschool through eighth grade. High school students attend neighboring Quilcene School District.
The 13-person staff includes three teachers who each teach three consecutive grades, along with a special education teacher.
While every staff member helps out with food service, cafeteria manager Nicole Norris prepares the food and “does the whole thing by herself,” Beathard said.
Beathard said Norris “was ecstatic and couldn’t stop crying” when she heard the news.
Beathard said the small school size makes the district resemble a family, where everyone knows each other and works together.
This extends into the community of some 800 people.
“Everyone knows everyone else’s name, along with their parents, siblings and grandparents,” Beathard said.
“The community is very involved and active in all of the school activities.”
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
