School board hears about building needs

The Wahkiakum School District Board of Directors met on Tuesday.

Superintendent Brent Freeman gave a brief update on the commercial kitchen/fish processing center.

“It continues to not go quite away,” Freeman said. “There are two different contractors that may be interested. We are running out of time.”

After the board approved a $150 cash box for ticket sales at middle school events, Freeman gave an update on a hoped for remodel at the district and discussed a suggested schedule to address the coming bond campaign.

“It’s going to be a district wide remodel,” Freeman said. “We know we’re not going to have enough money to satisfy all the need that’s here. We’re going to have to come up with a series of priorities.”

Most of the focus is at the high school, according to Freeman, but there are some things that need to be addressed at the elementary and middle schools.

Freeman will shortly be forming two committees. The first committee will do a walk through of the school and address facility needs, including safety and security issues. The second committee will consider how to best create spaces for student needs now and in the future, for instance, the library and science classrooms.

Enrollment started at 493 this year, with 14 students in the Running Start program and 14 in alternative learning experience.

“We’ve got to address Running Start at all the school districts,” Freeman said. “The Running Start program takes all our FTE funds, even though their tuition is about 60 percent of what those funds are.”

Freeman said that total expenditures for the month were $619,331.57, which includes more than $400,000 for payroll, during the budget report.

“We’re saving pennies at a time, but they all add up,” Freeman said. “We’re in okay shape.”