Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune, October 01, 2015

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OKANOGAN COUNTY FAIR

CCC Rummage Sale

PHOTOS & RESULTS

Benefit to raise money for the Community Cultural Center of Tonasket

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Tonasket schools to hold off on running bond

LEEP CROWNED FAIR QUEEN

Worried about area losses due to wildfires school garden to be moved from up on the hill to closer to the elementary school playground areas. The garden will be TONASKET - Tonasket School District reduced to a more manageable size of Board members voted to postpone run- about a quarter of an acre. Goals for this year include getting a ning the school bond fence built around it, again until February of the tool shed 2017. The decision was “We need the bond, but moving to the new location, reached at the Sept. 28 we can’t survive with- and building an outregular board meeting after much deliberaout the levy. My recom- door classroom. The board voted tion and discussion of mendation would be to reappoint Athletic critical needs within the schools, includto postpone the bond; Review Board community members Seth ing finding space for there is enough emo- Buchhert, Felicia Clark growing enrollment numbers. tional angst in the com- and Richard Rawley. The board approved Community memmunity right now” to increase the trafbers Michael Greene, fic safety class fee to Steve McCullough, Superintendent, Rob Inlow and Janet Tonasket School District $460. The fee increase Bretz reported on was necessitated by findings from a Bond the hiring of a private Facilities commitcontractor from Omak tee meeting earlier in the day; saying a majority of the group to teach the course when the former believed it would be best to focus on instructor retired and a replacement was running the levy this coming February, not found. The board approved the yearly report and to wait on running the bond again until the following February. Concerns required by the State School Board for were voiced regarding the community’s Basic Educational Compliance to verify economic recovery from this summer’s Tonasket School District is providing at least 1,080 hours of instruction per year. wildfires. The school board addressed sever“We need the bond, but we can’t survive without the levy,” said Tonasket al policy updates, approving the third School District Superintendent Steve and final reading of the Policy #6022, McCullough. “My recommendation Minimum Fund Balance. The policy would be to postpone the bond; that states the district will reach a minimum there is enough emotional angst in the fund balance of eight percent of the general fund budget by the 2018-19 school community right now.” A resolution would need to be submit- year with increments of six percent by ted by December 11 in order to run it in the 2016-17 school year and seven percent by the 2017-18 school year. February. More information is needed on Policy Board members approved the hiring of Lesli Koplin as middle school c-squad #6210, Purchasing: Authorization and volleyball coach, Mike Larson as a one- Control regarding bid limits, prior to year maintenance and grounds worker final adoption. First readings were held of updates and Ken Weese as a one-year high school to Policies #1340, Targeted Student custodian. The school board also voted to change Learning; #2020, Course Design, their meeting date from Mondays to Selection and Adoption of Instructional Wednesdays. Other changes include plans for the SEE SCHOOL BOND| PG A2 BY KATIE TEACHOUT

KATHERINE@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM

Katie Teachout/staff photos

Above, Brisa Leep and Serenity Poletti, both of Tonasket, wait to hear 2014 Okanogan County Fair Queen Lexee Howell, also of Tonasket, announce this year’s winner. Left, 2015 Okanogan County Fair Queen Brisa Leep thanks family and friends for their support during her campaign for fair queen.

Oroville school student enrollment higher than predicted, district prepares for levy Gold mine’s closure might not hit district as hard as forecast BY GARY A. DE VON EDITOR@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM

OROVILLE – “Schools in session and things are going very well,” Steve Quick, Oroville School District Superintendent told the school board at their Monday, Sept. 28 meeting. The statement came under “Good News and Announcements,” one of the first items the board’s agenda each month. Quick followed by saying enrollment was over what was projected when the board made this year’s budget. “We should be able to average by the end of the year what we budgeted for,” Quick said. Later when he was going over the financial report written by District Business Manager Shay Shaw, he said the district was at 544.7 FTE (full time

equivalent) students, which is 24.7 more predicted and the assessor hopes that than budgeted for. The more students the new construction in the area will help better because the state pays basic educa- to offset some of the decrease in evalution dollars based on ation when the mine the number of FTEs does shut down,” said enrolled in the school. Quick. “That was good Quick also spoke “ ...the assessor hopes news to me.” about the need to start When asked if the that new construction school district would preparing for the next two-year Maintenance in the area will help again qualify for levy and Operations Levy. equalization monto offset some of the ies once the mine was He said the issue will be on the ballot in decrease in evaluation closed, Quick said the February. Currently district did not know when the mine does at this point. Oroville the levy amount is $1.2 million and the School District lost shut down,” superintendent said Levy Equalization, Steve Quick, Superintendent the district did not funds given by the have enough property state to poorer rural Oroville School District evaluation to increase school districts if they that amount. However, pass their maintenance he added that a meeting last week and operation levies so they can provide with Okanogan County Assessor Scott education on a more equal level with Furman was more positive than expected property rich school districts. Oroville in light of Kinross’ plan to shut down lost levy equalization because the gold operations at their Buckhorn Mountain mine increased the amount of valuagold mine this year. tion in the district elevating it above the “The mine hasn’t shut down like they amount required to qualify.

OKANOGAN VALLEY GAZETTE-TRIBUNE Volume 111 No. 40

“We’re real close on Levy Equalization... that number fluctuates,” said Quick. “Some more good news is that the three year loan for improvements to the elementary school building comes off the tax rolls.” Last Monday’s meeting started out with a presentation by Tori Kindred, a sophomore at Oroville High School. Kindred is this year’s state president of Future Business Leaders of America. She reported on attending the state conference, as well as the national conference in Chicago. Kindred said FBLA gives students a chance to meet with business leaders from around the state and to network with people like Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook and the CEO of Starbucks. “I mainly came here to show my appreciation for your support of FBLA. We love to do this, we love to compete,” she said. “Without you supporting my dad and our chapter, we couldn’t do it.” After her year as state president, Kindred, whose father Tony Kindred is the group’s advisor, said she is considering running for national secretary. And

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even further into the future Kindred said she is thinking of getting into event planning as a career, because so much of her experience with FBLA has revolved around event planning. In their principal’s reports, both elementary principal Joan Hoehn and high school principal Kristen Sarmiento made presentations showing results from student testing – which grades and subjects the students were doing well in and where there was still work to be done. “We need to fill in the holes we’ve missed,” said Hoehn, referring to third and fourth grade English Language Arts and Literacy scores as well as fourth and fifth grade math scores. Sarmiento showed where 11th grade test results were lacking across the state. She said this was due to these students already passing required tests. “Across the state there were entire classes of 11th graders who walked out and didn’t take the tests because they had already met the requirements. Ours didn’t, but they didn’t try. It’s hard

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