Wednesday, April 23, 2014 • Whidbey News-Times
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Elementary schools awarded Fair group wants regular By MICHELLE BEAHM Staff reporter
Two Oak Harbor elementary schools received Washington Academic Achievement Awards for 2013. Broad View Elementary received a High Progress Award and Hillcrest Elementary received a Special Recognition Award for reading and math growth. The High Progress award is given to Washington schools that are in the top 10 percent of academic improvement over the last three years. The Special Recognition Award is given to the schools in the top 5 percent of academic growth in reading and math. “I think it is a great statement about how our kids are working hard, our teachers are making learning interesting and motivating kids to want to learn,” said Principal Joyce Swanson, “and I think it
just speaks to everybody’s commitment to making sure kids are successful.” These awards are given based on statewide assessment data for the last three years, according to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s website. Schools are assessed using the State Board of Education Revised Achievement Index and criteria set by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act Flexibility Waiver. “It’s not just a flash in the pan,” said Swanson. “This kind of award is recognizing us for a number of years of progress. According to Lance Gibbon, superintendent of the Oak Harbor School District, this isn’t the first time Oak Harbor elementary schools have been recognized with these awards. “Student success is our priority as a district,” Gibbon said in an email, “and the growth recognized in these two schools
is evidence that we’re making progress.” But according to school leaders, the improvement is not just because of the school faculty. “Improving student learning is really a team effort,” Gibbon said. “It takes teachers, support staff, principals, students and parents all working together toward a common goal.” Paula Seaman, principal of Hillcrest, said that the award was given to the whole community. “This is such a wonderful place to work,” Seaman said, “and I was just so proud to be a part of this community and a part of Hillcrest.” The schools and the district all intend to keep working towards improving the chances of student success. “Success in elementary school is a strong foundation for everything they’re going to do for the rest of their lives,” said Swanson.
Board adopts new curriculum By MICHELLE BEAHM Staff reporter
During the Oak Harbor School District board meeting last week, the board adopted a new secondary social studies curriculum, which was in the works for months. The biggest change in the curriculum is the replacement of “modern world problems” classes with “modern global economics.” For some staff members, this change was initially a concern because they felt modern world problems subject matter would not be covered well enough in the new curriculum. Brett McLeod, a teacher at Oak Harbor High School who has taught modern world problems for about eight years, was among those expressing concerns. The curriculum committee asked McLeod and fellow modern world problems teacher Mike Fisher to go over the proposal to ensure that the subject is covered. Before seeing the proposal, McLeod felt
modern world problems was the priority, and Fisher felt modern global economics was more important. “We looked at the curriculum, and what happened was … we saw that we could do both,” McLeod said. The two worked together to ensure both subjects will be adequately covered. “I think what this will allow us to do is kind of almost get the best of both worlds,” Fisher said. Another change in this curriculum is that mandatory state history class will be taught in seventh grade rather than later. For students who enter the school district in eighth through 10th grades, there will most likely be an online program to make up the credit, though it hasn’t been finalized. Students joining in 11th or 12th grade will get a waiver for the requirement. The school board approved the adoption of the curriculum change, which will go into effect at the start of the next school year.
county funding, new lease By BEN WATANABE Staff reporter
Running the Island County Fairgrounds costs too much, and the managing Whidbey Island Fair Association wants county funding as part of a restructured lease. In a letter sent to the county commissioners on April 9, fair association president Diane Divelbess wrote that her group could not “in good faith” renew the lease as it exists without any county support for the property. The two-year lease is set to expire in June. “The way we are now, we are managing but without sufficient funds to manage,” Divelbess said in a phone interview Thursday. “Up to now, the county has given us what [it] has been able to give us.” That reality rang true with Commissioner Helen Price Johnson. She worked with a steering committee that presented a $10.12 million overhaul of the property over 10 years. “What we found was the property has increasing challenges,” she said. “What is clear from the study is the fair association needs to focus on the fair, and that is reflected in this letter,” she added. Island County, the owner of the 12.8-acre property on Camano Avenue in Langley, has not budgeted any maintenance and operations funding for the fairgrounds for several years. In lieu of that money, the county offered $30,000 to the nonprofit fair association set up to manage the grounds and facility. The funds could only be spent on capital improvements. But recent problems with roofing, stormwater, burst pipes and the Pole Building’s not-quitecommercial kitchen remodel
“The way we are now, we are managing but without sufficient funds to manage.” Diane Divelbess, Whidbey Island Fair Association president
all required well more than the county’s budgeted amount. “The fairgrounds is sort of an albatross that the county is stuck with, and I think the average public thinks there is plenty of money in the county coffers and wonders what’s the big deal,” Divelbess said. “We’re just hoping that we can come up with some kind of an arrangement where we’re put into the county’s budgeting process.” The association’s request to redo its lease comes on the heels of a proposal that would have completely taken it out of the landlord business. Significant opposition arose from Whidbey Island residents displeased with the reimagined property. Out of the dissent, however, came a renewed charge that the property is in some state of disrepair and the fair association needs help. Divelbess said she has 15 applications to join the association that she was sorting through and she and the other fair directors hoped to garner more public support going forward. Public support for the property’s survival was also noted by Price Johnson as a positive outcome of the proposal’s opposition. “The upside is that a lot of people are thinking about the fairgrounds,” Price Johnson said. “There’s an opportunity ahead.” The lease itself is a honeypot: attractive but ensnaring. It allows the managing agency — the Whidbey
Island Fair Association — full use of the property, including the ability to rent out its facilities, and to keep any revenue generated from it. But it also holds the fair association responsible for the property’s and the buildings’ upkeep. When the fair association originally signed the agreement, it thought the four-day fair would generate enough money to handle small upkeep issues. “It’s actually a good arrangement, it’s just that the buildings are old enough that we can’t rent them for what they’re worth,” Divelbess said. “With some additional monies, we can probably manage quite well to finally spruce up things and make it possible for some of the buildings, like the Pole Building, to be rentable,” she added. “It would be nice if we got some buildings really up to snuff.” Price Johnson said that it is possible for Island County to resume active management of the property or to find a new group to run it, which would allow the fair association to solely focus on producing the fair. But the county is in the process of cutting some of its expenses, including possibly passing along stewardship of some park properties over the next few years. Any decision on the property would likely include the opinion of a new county facilities director, currently a vacant position. The interim Island County facilities director was directed by the commissioners to begin looking at the county’s options and the fair association’s request. “How it’s managed is really going to be our question,” Price Johnson said. “Is it a county employee, [or] do we enter into a relationship with another entity?”
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