Wanted: school board candidates

Because board member Tony Boyce submitted his resignation on March 13, Wahkiakum School District directors are searching for someone to replace him on the five-seat board.

Any community member can nominate a candidate for the position by calling the district office at 795-3271. Self-nominations are also welcome.

Candidates need to reside in the vacant director district, which covers portions of the North Cathlamet, South Cathlamet, Rosedale, and Columbia precincts.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, District Superintendent Bob Garrett suggested interested individuals contact the county auditor’s office at 795-3219 to verify that they live within the district boundaries.

Potential appointees will need to fill out an application describing their qualifications. Board members plan to interview the top five candidates at their April meeting, but may hold off until May if the size of the candidate pool is too small.

After interviewing the candidates, the board will appoint a person to fill Boyce’s position. That appointee would need to run for election in November.

Board members also discussed whether the district should continue to fund transportation for summer extracurricular programs.

At last month’s board meeting, Garrett proposed that the board review the way in which transportation costs for summer extracurricular programs are paid.

He explained that several athletic programs travel to camps and games during the summer in order to prepare for school year competition.

In the past, these programs have used district vehicles and have had their fuel costs covered.

The last two summers, the average travel expense has averaged $1100 for high school basketball. Three-quarters of that was for the boys team, Garrett said, as they travel to a camp in Eastern Washington each summer. The football team’s travel to Camp Rilea has cost the district around $500. No other extracurricular program has done a summer program of that scope the past two years, he reported.

All district coaches were emailed an invitation to attend Tuesday’s meeting in order to provide feedback, Garrett said. None attended.

Garrett said he recommended discontinuing funding of summer extracurricular travel expenses, but that the final decision was up to the board.

“I’m not saying so much that we can’t afford it, but that financial resources are declining and we are probably going to be making cuts to staffing because of our enrollment decline. We need to decide if we are willing to make cuts to extracurriculars as well."

“I basically wanted you to be aware of the kind of money we were spending in subsidizing those programs,” he explained.

Garrett said that one possibility the board might consider is proposing funding for extracurricular activities in the district’s maintenance and operations levy that will be on the ballot next February.

“We’re about to implement new standards and new teacher assessment. If we don’t have money to spend on training and helping us become good at what we’re here to do, then we’ve kinda lost sight of the purpose. Summer is extra. Is that what we want our district money to be going to- transporting kids to those kind of things? Or do we want them making up credits and looking at how we can improve teaching, and those kind of things,” remarked Wahkiakum High School Principal Stephanie Leitz.

“I would agree with you there, and I like Bob’s idea of seeing if the public wants to help fund extracurricular activities a little bit more with the next levy,” responded Board Member Lee Tischer.

Tischer and Board Members Mike Quigley and Tina Schubert approved a limit of $300 in summer travel expenses for each extracurricular program this summer.