Latest news with #KatelynSchuler
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Orchard Prairie School District bond appears to pass in special election
Apr. 22—More on fire districts Fire District 8 levy passes Voters approved property tax increase that will fund emergency medical response services. NW, 4 Orchard Prairie School District appears to be getting a new school, election night results indicate. The tiny and historic district's proposed $6.2 million bond to construct a new school for its 79 students earned 64.6% voter support Tuesday night. The proposal fared better than an identical one from November that garnered 55.8% support from the 559 voters in the 6-square-mile school district. School officials will use the funds to replace a 1970s-era building that staff say is too small and not up to state codes on accessibility and seismic safety. School board President Katelyn Schuler's phone was pinging nonstop after results dropped, and it was staff reaching out to celebrate and confirm the numbers were true. She's excited for teachers and students in the district where she sends her kids and also works as a counselor. "There was just this sense of ownership from a lot of our students in the process, so I'm so excited for them to feel that sense of pride, for them to feel we worked for this and we put in the effort and it paid off," she said. "Now we get to see the results of that." Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Eyeing construction cost increases, historic Orchard Prairie School District asks voters again to pass a bond
Apr. 11—The tiny and historic school district of Orchard Prairie is trying again at passing a bond to build a new school for its 79 students. A November attempt fell short of the 60% voter support needed by 24 votes, racking up 53% support from the relatively small number of voters who live within the 6-square-mile school district's bounds. The new proposal is on the April 22 ballot and would raise $6.2 million to be paid off over 30 years, plus $2.5 million in matching funds from the state. Those funds would be used to construct a new school on their two-school campus, replacing a cramped 1970s building where older students learn. Orchard Prairie's other building houses younger students; it's an updated one-room schoolhouse built in 1894, the oldest operating school in the state and would continue to be used. School officials plan to add the original schoolhouse to the Spokane County historic registry. If passed, property owners in the school district would pay at an estimated yearly rate of $3.27 per $1,000 in assessed property value through the 30-year life of the bond. This rate includes the proposed bond and an existing local school tax levy. Property owners currently pay at a rate of $1.22 per thousand in local school taxes, constituting the district's educational programs and operations tax levy. April's proposal is the same as the details from November, but school officials are hoping a better-communicated campaign will get this bond over the finish line. "We've tried to express the need that we have because of the age of our facilities and the need for secure facilities and new safe space for our staff and our students," said Katelyn Schuler, school board chair and counselor at the school. "That need can only be met by building a new building." Staff make use of just about every inch in the 1970s building, a front desk pushed against the wall in the hallway outside its two classrooms. Rather than a nurse's office, kids seek treatment in the corner of the intervention room behind a partition, next to two small rooms used for Superintendent and Principal Joseph Beckford's office and Schuler's private counseling room in the building's basement. Staff and students make use of a general purpose room in their basement to dine, work on some school projects and other outside-the-classroom tasks. The new building would be built behind the turn-of-the-century schoolhouse. It would be big enough for all classes and a nurse's office, front office, a single entrance for safety, a multipurpose room and an interventionist room all absent from the existing facility. Their 1970s school isn't in compliance with seismic safety codes or accessibility measures outlined in the Americans with Disabilities Act. To get them up to code in their current building, Schuler said it would cost just about the same to do extensive renovating: installing an elevator, addressing the foundation and increasing bathroom size, among other updates. "The entire building would essentially have to be gutted and reconfigured," Schuler said. "The quotes and the information we got, essentially, is it would cost almost the same to remodel the current building, and it wouldn't address all of the safety issues." Though not an imminent threat, Schuler has worries about school district consolidation. If it's not able to provide a learning space that meets safety requirements and isn't fiscally sound, Orchard Prairie could be absorbed by a larger neighboring school district. Schuler has some urgency in getting the bond passed sooner rather than later, as costs for construction and materials are on the rise. Already, the district will have to keep a close watch on its construction budget, Schuler said. "It is going to be tight. We're going to have to be very, very conscious of our budget, just because building costs are continuing to increase, and so we're really hoping that it will pass this time, because if we have to put it on the ballot again in the fall, we will probably have to change the amount, and we really don't want to have to ask the voters for more." Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
