In the past I have been critical of the way the Orcas School District has handled the maintenance of our school buildings. I would like a chance to get on board and be a school supporter, too.

So I have a proposal to the school district by which they can win my support and approval. It’s not a hard thing and certainly not something the school district should not already be doing. The parapet walls around the roof of the middle school are sorely lacking in basic maintenance, it has been many years since they were painted – I wonder if they have ever been painted since the place was first built? The paint has peeled off and some of the wood has rotted underneath from lack of protection. Replacement of the rotting wood and repainting of the walls can only be done during the dry months of summer.

So here is my challenge to the school district, as a matter of routine maintenance, repair and paint the parapet walls over the middle school this summer. You know it needs to be done. You have the money to do it from the Maintenance Levy. If you refuse to use money from the Maintenance Levy to do basic maintenance, you will not have my support next time the Maintenance Levy comes up for a vote. If you in good faith make these repairs as you should, I will support the  Maintenance Levy and the School District’s endeavor to maintain the campus. If you do not, I will have to consider that bad faith and a refusal to use the funds provided to you for proper maintenance. I would then have to oppose any further passage of “Maintenance Levies,” which clearly are being misused.

Chris Butler

Eastsound