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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
March 1, 2018     Shelton Mason County Journal
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March 1, 2018
 
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Thursday, March 1,2018 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page A-19 BY DANA KAMPA dana@masoncoun~ com Looking at capital construction, North Mason School District Superintendent Dana Rosenbach shared some bad news about renovations at the Mary E. Theler Community Center at the February meet- ing. Contractors told the district Feb. 12 that rodents had severely damaged the attic's insulation. "We have later determined that working condi- tions were unsafe for them due to the contamina- tion," Rosenbach said. "The renovations have ceased until the contaminated materials can been restored." The district expects to accept a bid for the extra work that week. The contaminated insulation will have to be removed and replaced, and the district will have to hire an exterminator to treat the build- ing and protect it against pests in the future. Consid- ering the scope of work and timeframe, Rosenbach said she doesn't anticipate to receive three or more bids and will thus move forward with whoever re- sponds. "All of that has to happen before we can continue," she said. Ashley Supry, school district director of business & finance, said the work will hopefully not exceed $15,000, allowing the district to move forward with- out getting three quotes. On a better note, Rosenbach said crews had al- most finished installing the HVAC system, updating the sprinkler system and will complete the electrical work once the building is safe to re-enter. Rosenbach said preschool students will remain where they are currently being taught for the rest of the year, though construction will likely wrap up before then, giving faculty and staff time to move in to the building over the summer. Herald file photo by Brianna Loper Contractors working to bring the Mary E. Theler Community Center up to code as a preschool facility encountered extensive rodent damage Feb. 12 to the building's insulation. Construction on the North Mason High School seating and roofing -- for consideration at the board's football stadium's locker room/concession stand March meeting. The superintendent said construc- building is progressing, and Rosenbach said she an- tion should be completely finished in time for the ticipates receiving a bid for the rest of the project -- mid-September season opening. NORTH MASON SCHOOL DISTRICT BRIEFS Board thinks long-term financial planning The North Mason School Board last week ad- justed its financial management policy to make sure the school district at minimum always has enough funding for one month's complete payroll in reserve. North Mason School Board President Craig Patti re- called when the district had its funding pulled mid- year amidst the onset of the recession, and Superin- tendent Dana Rosenbach said the goal was to keep the district from ending up in a situation where it would have to choose who gets paid and who doesn't. January's revenue was slightly lower and expen- ditures slightly higher than projected. District Di- rector of Business & Finance Ashley Supry said this was largely because enrollment in special education programs decreased, while the costs for high-need special education students increased. The district also had to pay to complete multiple maintenance projects that were not originally budgeted and to cover increased payroll and benefit expenses negoti- ated since the beginning of the school year. Despite unbudgeted expenses, Supry said she anticipates the budget will be back on track once the special education funding evens out. The actual and budgeted revenues and expenditures to date are similar. Supry said the district is still seeing enrollment of about 50 students more than was originally budget- ed. Washington state schools receive funding based upon enrollment. Over the next few months, unbudgeted expendi- tures in particular for work at the Mary E. Theler Community Center will start to rise, Supry said. =The Theler project wasn't included in our budget for this year, and that was a larger chunk of funds," Supry said. "You're going start to see that, as well as those payroll increases and the benefit increases for classified staff and for our bus drivers. It was obviously very important to ensure that we gave the staff the raises that they deserved, but we're going to see that as an increase in expenditures over bud- get in these upcoming months." More elementary school students eating breakfast North Mason School District Director of Nutri- tion Services Michelle Waller said last week she was excited Sand Hill Elementary School recently began offering pod breakfasts, mobile hotboxes and cold boxes, with funding from a national Community Eli- gibility Provision grant allocated last year. All el- ementary school students in the district are eligible to receive breakfast and lunch at no charge through the 2017-18 school year regardless of family or household income, according to the district website. Partially because of this change, Waller said the number of students eating breakfast went from 50 percent last year to 70 percent this year. Waller said the state average is 30 to 40 percent. Belfair El- ementary participation is in the high 60 percent. Waller said she also applied for a Meals for Kids grant from the state, allowing staffto purchase new serving utensils, trays and a milk cooler at Sand Hill Elementary. Last year, Belfair Elementary also purchased a new dishwasher, steam tables, ovens and hotboxes. "We've been able to, over the past three years, update those kitchens of the older schools at no ex- pense to the district," Waller said. This year, Waller said she still hopes to get a grant to replace Sand Hill's refrigerators and steam table. "Then, both elementary schools will be completely updated with new equipment," she said. Waller said the staff aims to offer healthful, ap- petizing, scratch-made meals whenever possible, un- likethe image often seen in the news of inadequate meals. School district reviews discipline policy The North Mason School Board examined its com- munication and student discipline policies Feb. 21 during its monthly meeting, and conducted its mid- year evaluation of Superintendent Dana Rosenbach in an executive session. While reviewing board policy concerning the superintendent's communication with the public, board members Laura Boad and John Campbell said they especially appreciated her communication on issues of school closings and general information. Regarding school discipline, Rosenbach said she has been working to make sure the district's policy conforms to changing state requirements. "It is sometimes hard for our staff to determine what actions to take, but they do use our guidelines as a starting place," she said. The next board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. March 15 in the administration office boardroom. Board member Art Wightman encouraged commu- nity members to come and offer their input on school disciplinary policy at the next meeting. Compiled by reporter Dana Kampa ing started or are well underway." dollars can be spent. continued from page A-18 This growth is anticipated not just "The Legislature is considering a at the kindergarten level, but also in number of bills that would make ad- She presented a budgeted enroll- grades across the board with the de- justments to how they determined we ment of 2,283 for 2018-19, the full-time parture of some smaller class sizes. For were funding schools in the last ses- equivalent of 87 more students than the past several years, enrollment has sion," she said. were enrolled as of February. been growing, but by a much smaller Though the newly proposed guide- "You'll see a significant jump," margin, lines are fairly vague at this point, Rosenbach said. "This is actually a very Even with this increase, Rosenbach Rosenbach said, she expects the state conservative estimate based on the dif- said allocating the funding may pres- to provide more firm numbers before ferent demographic guidelines that we ent a challenge next year given the the end of the session. look at for doing our projections and sweeping changes the state Legislature The school district anticipates levy considering the changes in the commu- enacted in 2017 to school funding, par- collections for 2018-19 to be approxi- nity, the building projects that are be- ticularly with the specifics of how state mately $4.6 million. This amount is set to drop significantly over the coming years as the new budgeting structure allocates more funding from state dol- lars and fewer from local levies. The district will not be able to collect all the funding previously approved by local voters unless something changes in the next week. The superintendent's guidelines specify that as of Sept. 1, 2018, the district will own almost $4.1 million in non-voted debt and $45.5 million in voted debt, less than a third of the dis- trict's capacity.