SEQUIM — Final projects from the Sequim School District 2021 capital levy are being planned and scheduled.
Voters approved the four-year, $15 million capital levy in February 2021, and its last collection date is set for this month, school officials said.
Once received, the school board will tentatively decide what the last improvement projects will be in spring 2026, Superintendent Regan Nickels said.
“We’ll know the whole pot of money by mid-November,” she told school board directors on Sept. 15.
Since its approval, staff said funds have been used to support buildings and surfaces across the district, including new fencing around Olympic Peninsula Academy, district-wide roof replacements, phone systems being replaced, cameras installed throughout the district, a new gym floor put in at Sequim High School, the district’s track resurfaced, HVAC and intercom replacements at multiple schools and a refresh of Greywolf Elementary School’s septic system.
Mike Santos, director of Sequim School District’s facilities, said they plan to solicit construction bids in January for replacing the roof at Sequim Middle School, and for changing the potable water infrastructure at Greywolf with construction slated for completion next summer.
Santos said a planned cafeteria at Greywolf through bond funds will be separate but tie into the levy work set to be done.
The piping project won’t be simple, he said, as it has a big scope with re-plumbing each classroom.
In the high school’s auditorium, stage curtains are tearing and cannot be repaired, Santos said, so they must be replaced.
Its lights and sound are dated, and they are not user-friendly, he said.
“One of the biggest issues is that lights above the stage cannot be maintained,” Santos said.
“There are significant structural and electrical codes that we need to come up to compliance with (too).”
In the summer, custodial staff from Helen Haller Elementary cleaned the auditorium’s seats, carpets and floors, and the building “smells so much better,” Santos said.
Nickels said auditorium issues were highlighted when the school district was considering hosting a “Boys in the Boat” event.
“We’re excited we’re contemplating what (the repairs) could be,” she said.
Auditorium repairs will be presented to the board in December, staff said.
In the near future, Santos said the district also will use levy funds to fix a sewer line for the auditorium, and repair the high school’s H building drain line.
Bond, CTE program
Sequim voters also passed a 20-year, $146 million construction bond earlier this year.
Following the hiring of The Wenaha Group to lead construction management for the construction projects and Career Technical Education (Ramponi Center for Technical Excellence) building, Santos said they’ve begun planning what will be packaged together to go before the state’s Project Review Committee (PRC) for approval.
Santos said they’re looking to package Sequim High School’s building construction, the CTE building and new Helen Haller Elementary together for a mid-October submittal and, if selected, it’ll be reviewed in early December by the PRC.
“We’re competing with a lot of other districts across the state (to be considered),” Santos said.
A second package for the PRC will include a new transportation center and stadium improvements for a date to be determined.
Santos said Greywolf’s new cafeteria and HVAC improvements will not be included in a PRC proposal.
District staff have said it could take up to two years to break ground on larger projects in the bond list.
There has been no decision on where the new Helen Haller Elementary, CTE building and transportation building will go until various surveys and committees convene before bringing those decisions back for board approval.
“We’re eager to get all of this information in hand,” Santos said.
Design and construction decisions are still forthcoming too, and Santos said they’ll work on other bond projects, such as safety vestibules, while working on other bond and levy projects.
“It’s going to be a wild year,” he said.
For more information, visit sequimschools.org/bond_program.
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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.
