SEQUIM — The Sequim School District’s construction bond passing included more than a decade of effort for many longtime advocates.
Jodi Minker-James, president of Citizens for Sequim Schools, gathered with fellow supporters to await results on Feb. 11 at Stymie’s Bar and Grill, where she told attendees they “had left it all on the court” for this election.
The district’s propositions for a construction bond and to renew its levy have passed. For the bond, about 65.6 percent of voters were in favor of bringing about $146 million in improvements to each school and its facilities, including building a new Helen Haller Elementary school, high school buildings and a cafeteria at Greywolf Elementary, with improvements to the district’s track and stadium, transportation center and safety upgrades to existing campuses.
Minker-James said she got involved in the effort while her now-graduated daughter attended Helen Haller Elementary. The district’s second bond attempt had just failed.
“It was just like enough is enough,” she said.
The school district’s first two failed bonds included a combination of the recently passed projects in April 2014 with a $154.3 million proposal and in February 2015 for a $49.3 million proposal.
Two more attempts came close but failed with a $49.3 million proposal in November 2015, and the last proposal at $54 million in February 2016 failed to reach the required 60 percent supermajority with 57.4 percent of voters saying yes.
“We worked so hard and got so close, and we just kept not quite getting to that threshold,” Minker-James said.
“People kept saying, ‘Well, it failed. Don’t try again,’ and I kept saying, ‘It didn’t fail, it simply did not meet the threshold.’
“A majority of the community was resoundingly in support, but just not enough to hit that threshold, and so I just got hungry to close that gap.”
Despite her daughter graduating from high school, Minker-James said she felt encouraged by other supporters for this bond and levy attempt.
“We just gave it all that we had, and honestly, I think it was a combination of the right people at the right time, the leadership at the school level and the group working towards the campaign,” she said.
“Also, I think it was just the right time for our community where people really saw that the needs weren’t going away and it was just going to get more expensive down the road, so the time really was now.”
The district’s four-year, $36.2 million educational programs and operations levy renewal passed for the sixth straight time. It received 68.3 percent in favor when it needed a simple majority.
Funds will go toward staffing levels, extracurricular activities and athletics, music, counseling, transportation and more.
Leading up to the bond proposal, the district’s board of directors accepted recommendations from a 13-member Long Range Facilities Planning Group (LRFPG) that collaborated with experts to evaluate schools’ structural integrity, safety and functionality to prioritize repairs and upgrades.
Sequim School District’s leaders voted in December to bring the resolutions to residents on the special election ballot with the group’s recommendations.
Troy Zdzieblowski was a member of the group and said on election night he was initially interested to see what was happening with the district as his daughter is in elementary school.
“I didn’t come in with any sort of skepticism, just to open my mind to what was happening in the school district and to learn a little bit more,” he said.
Zdzieblowski said the long-range group sought a lot of input from the community and “what would be the best investment for what’s needed in these facilities.”
“It’s refreshing to see that the community has really come together to support the school district,” he said.
Zdzieblowski said he understands concerns about being taxed more, but, “after looking at these (school) buildings, it’s a very needed next step for us to move forward and create the best Sequim that we can and support our next generation.”
Focal points for district officials about school buildings in recent months have been about the age and condition of facilities and costs for repair.
District staff said in a previous interview they investigated renovating both Helen Haller Elementary (HHE) and Sequim High School (SHS) and that the costs between new construction and renovation would be about 1.6 times more for HHE and 1.8 times more for SHS due to the age of the buildings and space between structures and utilities.
The campuses also have open California designs that district officials said are unsafe, and bond funds would help better enclose and fund safety improvements for all campuses.
District officials also reported that the transportation center has structural and drainage issues, Greywolf Elementary was built without a cafeteria, the district’s track is undersized, and its stadium bleachers are not compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards.
Sequim School Board President Eric Pickens said it was a community effort for the bond and levy to pass.
“It was staff, parents and community members all coming together and just really showing the importance of our kids here in Sequim and that our students matter, especially when there’s a lot of needs that need to be addressed,” he said.
“There’s a lot of projects on the horizon across the town.”
He encouraged people to get involved because it will require many stakeholders “to make sure our facilities are going to meet students’ needs.”
For more information on Sequim Schools, visit sequimschools.org.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached by email at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com. He has family employed by and enrolled in Sequim School District.
