The following was sent out to those who participated in the phase three campus remodel discussions at the public school.

by Eric Webb

Orcas School Superintendent

Thank you all for attending the Orcas Island School District Bond Workshop on Sept. 21. It was a great evening of conversation and we thank you for your input.

Below are the results from the table break-outs. All tables did a terrific job at creating $5(ish) and $8(ish) million bonds. A few notes about what you are looking at.

1) As Lisa Byers mentioned at the top of the evening, this is a snapshot of results. We are hoping to conduct this same exercise in separate sessions with school staff, and students. We are also hoping we can partner with PTSA to have a Parent Night version. Those will also be snapshots, but as we gather more information from different groups (all with different interests) we will have a bigger overall picture to present to the school board.

2) “Aha” moments from the tables:

• By far the “aha” that was expressed at almost all tables was: Before considering new projects, the priority of a new bond should be attending to updates of existing facilities.
• There was a split between keeping the tax burden low and going for everything on the list.
• If there are to be new projects, there was concern about maintenance. This was expressed most strongly as a reason not to pursue a track. However, this concern did not seem as widely applied when considering on-going expense/maintenance to other new construction (ie, the second music room and weight room).
• There was general confusion over the difference between the Old Gym $1 million vs. $2 million updates. In other words, it wasn’t clear what was in each of these proposals. Did, for example, the $2 million update include the $1 million updates?
• Most felt the track was not important.

3) What happens next?

This 9/21 meeting was a little bit of the “horse before the cart.” We are still waiting on estimates from consultants (Engineers, electrical, plumbing, architects) to lock down better numbers for the projects. In other words, what may have seemed like a $500,000 project could be higher or lower. The only number that is locked in (for now) is the track construction.

As mentioned above, we hope to have additional workshops like the one you attended. I will then compile the numbers from your meeting with these additional workshops to present a wider range of recommendations to the school board.

The school board will discuss the scope of the new bond at its regular meeting on Oct. 27. Subsequent to that, there will be a special meeting (tentatively scheduled for Nov. 10) to finalize the bond amount and what projects that proposed bond will cover.

I hope you will continue to stay as engaged with the process as you have been. If you have any questions about the meeting, or the bond projects in general feel free to contact me.