South Whidbey Record, December 03, 2011

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RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2011 | Vol. 87, No. 97 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢

INSIDE: Winter preview, Sports, A11-13

New school board will move to reverse LMS closure BY BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record

LANGLEY — Langley Middle School is going to stay open next school year. A resolution to close the middle school on Camano Avenue is likely to be rescinded at the Dec. 14 South Whidbey School Board meeting, said newly appointed Board Chairman Steve Scoles. “We’re not going to close the middle school this summer,” Scoles said. “We need to acknowledge that can’t happen and take the next step.” “It’s been a really big deal the last three years,” Scoles added. “With the change of the board with the new members and myself, we feel strongly that we should look at the July [2009] measure.” The school board voted in 2009 to close the eight-building LMS campus and consolidate the school with South Whidbey High School no later than September 2012. This week’s addition of two new board members, Damian Greene and Linda Racicot, means a new majority that favors keeping the middle school open. Greene and Racicot were sworn in as new board members Wednesday. The board will vote on a new resolution to effectively cancel the unpopular closure later this month.

Ben Watanabe / The Record

Damian Greene and Linda Racicot take their oaths to faithfully serve the school district at the board meeting Nov. 30. Both won unchallenged seats on the South Whidbey School Board. Scoles, now serving his second stint as board chairman, was the only board member during the original vote in 2009 to cast against the closure. “I strongly objected to that amendment at the time as completely impractical,” Scoles said.

“They won’t all fit in one building. “What I saw all along was the community would not support this idea.” Scoles has proposed further evaluations of the middle school facilities. In a school board meeting this summer, he challenged the

$4 million cost estimate to upgrade the school in the event of an earthquake. Regulations covering seismic upgrades are changing constantly, he noted. “The code keeps changing every year,” Scoles said.

He was also critical of other cost concerns. Proponents of closing the middle school argued it would save the district money in staff and faculty. Scoles disagreed. “My feeling is if you move 400 students you’re still going to need teachers, cooks, custodians and administrators,” he said. The Dec. 14 meeting will also include a brief workshop to review some policies before getting into the business meeting and the new resolution. Closing LMS has been bitterly debated at school board meetings since it was proposed three years ago, and adding it to the agenda is likely to bring out supporters for both closing the school and keeping it open. “I would expect there would be some speakers on both sides of this issue,” Scoles said. Moving forward on the district’s facilities was an important, and also unknown, step. Scoles admitted the board won’t have a recommendation on what the district should do within the next two weeks before the Dec. 14 meeting. After the winter break, though, he expects to see progress and ideas on where to go from here. “I would like to see us have a workshop in a few months to move SEE LMS, A7

Langley to consider keeping Weed as city attorney Attorney’s office has problematic past in Langley BY BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record

The law firm that was roundly criticized inside and outside Langley City Hall for its clumsy handling of the mayor’s salary controversy is being offered a new contract by the city. The city council will consider a new one-year deal for the Snohomish-based law firm of Weed, Graafstra & Benson, Inc. at the council meeting Monday. Grant Weed, the president of the law firm, has been the city’s attorney since Brian Kelly / Record file March 2008. Langley City Attorney Grant Weed talks with council members at a The move to keep Weed and his workshop earlier this year. The council will consider extending his fellow attorneys on retainer is somecontract Monday. what surprising, however.

Council members repeatedly lambasted the city’s lawyers last year over their misguided work on the mayor’s pay and vacation brouhaha, as well as the errant effort on the Langley Passage project that resulted in multiple lawsuit threats against the city. When the council approved a one-year extension last year, the dog pile grew thick as city officials recalled their unhappiness over Langley Passage. Then-councilman Robert Gilman said better lawyers were available, and a majority of the council said they wanted other options for attorneys brought to them for consideration in 2011. That never happened. Concerns

over the city attorney continued through this year as attorney costs exploded and Langley overspent its budget on legal services by August. The rates for the new agreement mirror those in the current contract that expires at the end of 2011. It sets an hourly rate of $160 for work on basic city attorney services, and the city attorney will be paid $170 an hour for special legal assistance. Councilman Bob Waterman said he was satisfied with Weed’s work over the past year. “I think he’s performed well,” Waterman said. “He’s done a very SEE ATTORNEY, A2


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