by COLLEEN SMITH ARMSTRONG and CALI BAGBY
Staff report
A healthy budget
After several years of budget cuts from the state, Orcas Island School District is now looking at a balanced financial situation with enough funding for staffing, athletics, library services and music.
“It’s a wonderful thing,” said Superintendent Barbara Kline. “For the last four years, we have been going to the community for help with basic programming – and now we don’t have to.”
A reduction in state funding during the recession required the school to cut back on staffing and curriculum offerings in recent years. Not only does the 2013-14 budget include enough for basic programming, the board has allocated money for the reserve fund. The board was also able to reinstate 10 teachers who had received notices of possible non-renewal at the start of the summer.
“I’m happy that we got the budget done in a very organized manner,” said Board member Tony Ghazel. “The Budget Advisory Committee fine tuned it, and the whole process was much smoother this year.”
The budget is driven by student enrollment based on the number of full time students. OISD’s average enrollment for last year was 782 full-time equivalent students. This year’s numbers are based on a conservative expected enrollment of 725 FTE.
New K-6 principal
The newly appointed Elementary Principal Kathy Page is described as delightful and energetic.
“She was above and beyond everyone’s first choice,” said Kline.
The school’s Administration Study Committee recently recommended that the district have two full-time principals and a superintendent because student enrollment or other ongoing projects, such as the construction bond, require a full-time superintendent.
Kline will remain the superintendent of the entire district, Kyle Freeman will work as the principal of seventh to 12th grade, and Page will be the principal of kindergarten to sixth grade as well as special education director for the district.
Candidates were interviewed by a parent/community committee, staff committee and Freeman and Kline.
Others outside of the group also agree with the decision.
“I’ve already seen Kathy at lots of community functions this summer,” Ghazel said. “Her experience, personality – she is the right person for the job.”
A reception to welcome Page will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 3 p.m., next to the school library. Cookies and refreshments are provided. Children are welcome.
Page has worked in education for 25 years and 13 of those years she spent working in pre-kindergarten to eighth grade. She received her bachelor of arts from Central Washington University and her master of arts from Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash. In the future, she hopes to begin pursuing a doctorate.
“I love to learn and can’t imagine not attending training with the staff as we continually seek out the latest research in education,” she said.
Page has worked in various states across the U.S., including Fort Campbell on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee where her husband was stationed with the Army. There she worked as a middle school principal and a response to intervention coordinator.
She has also worked in Washington state and Arizona. She enjoyed her job in the Southwest, but as a Washington native she missed the landscape of green.
“We were excited to see an opening on Orcas and we were even more excited when I received the call from Superintendent Barbara Kline,” said Page. “I felt like it was a fit when I interviewed, feeling like I had found home.”
Page looks forward to working in the elementary school and appreciates that kids at that age are extremely honest and have an intense sense of fairness.
“They believe strongly in what is right and wrong and will call you on the carpet if they don’t believe things are fair. They make you reflect on your own practices all the time,” she said. “There isn’t a day that goes by that I can’t say I didn’t learn something new from a child. I also appreciate students’ love of learning.”
Some of the projects she envisions in her position are holding monthly assemblies to honor all students for good choices and hard work and reviving a recess alternative for students called Orcas Running Club All Stars, which will be held two days a week. She has met with the school’s Positive Behavior Interventions and Support team three times since arriving to make sure beneficial programs remain in place.
“We are continuing the work by implementing positive reinforcement systems for students,” she said.
Page, her husband and their two basset hounds officially moved to the island in June. The couple has already enjoyed local staples like the Solstice parade and plenty of trips up Mt. Constitution.
“My impression is that this community takes care of each other,” she said. “I feel like I have stepped back in time to a better place and time. I didn’t believe places like this existed anymore.”
Bond project
Building plans are in the final stages for the $11.9 million bond project, passed by voters last November.
The 1980’s buildings – which include the middle school, library, cafeteria, music room, wood shop, home economics/culinary arts room – will undergo renovations to address health and safety concerns. In addition, there will be improved spaces for career and technical education classes.
The middle school will be moved into the Nellie Milton building. Classrooms on the south end of the building would be re-developed to accommodate the seventh and eighth grades, and they will be closed off from the rest of the upper elementary by doors.
By moving these grades, the school library will go into what was the existing middle school building. It will now include space that can be used by the public, without any egress to classrooms. This includes the library, culinary arts, and a tech lab.
New music rooms would be located at the back of the old gym – near the new CTE building. This will open up the front of the campus and allow for a new drop-off area. The old library will be renovated into OASIS classrooms and administrative offices.
The district has delayed delivery of the modular building that will become additional classroom space during the bond project and flexible classroom space after the bond. The building is now stored in the Mt. Vernon area and will be delivered to campus after the site has been prepared. It is expected to be ready for occupancy by the start of school in September or soon after. The school received the free building through the Washington State University Energy consortium. Only a few years old, it is coming from the University of Washington campus.
The campus renovation is being overseen by project manager Liz LeRoy, and Mahlum Architects is handling the design. The Capital Projects Advisory Committee and board members have been an integral part of the process. Plans will be completed by the end of this year and the project will go out to bid in January 2014. The first phase will start construction in April 2014 with the entire project to be done by September 2015.
“We have spent a lot of time on this,” Kline said. “There will be very few tweaks to the plans at this point.”
