6A • September 16, 2016 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
Building plans move ahead for new school
District to seek $99.7
million for new campus
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
The architects say they
should have a site plan for a
new school campus in Seaside
by the end of this week.
Meanwhile, campaign team
members are working on new
components for the website,
Seaside School District Su-
perintendent-emeritus Doug
Dougherty said Friday.
Citing dire need and tsuna-
mi risk, Dougherty presented
a proposal for a $99.7 mil-
lion bond Thursday, Sept. 1,
for a new campus for all the
schools. Members of the Sea-
side School District Board of
Directors unanimously voted
to bring the resolution to vot-
ers in the November election.
“I’m really happy we’re mov-
ing forward,” board Chair-
man Steve Phillips said after
the meeting. “We have pared
down to the actual needs of the
district rather than the wants.”
Dougherty said there are
four schools in the state in
the tsunami inundation zone.
Three of those are in the Sea-
side School District.
Gearhart
Elementary
School, Broadway Mid-
dle School and Seaside High
School were built with an ex-
pected lifespan of 45 to 50
years. Each has been used be-
yond that span. “The schools
are currently unsafe, they are
deteriorating and they’re very
ineficient,” he said.
At Broadway Middle
School, students are in struc-
tures with unreinforced ma-
sonry, aging utilities, cinder
block construction and walls
torn by horizontal shearing.
Gearhart
Elementary
school’s gym is riddled with
dry rot and “would collapse
in an earthquake,” Dougherty
said. Leaks are so bad in the
68-year-old school, “It’s pretty
much like playing whack-a-
mole, where you are pretty sure
the leak is not coming directly
from the spot it’s leaking from.
Often it’s many feet away and
trying to track it down is very,
very dificult.”
At Seaside High School,
classrooms are water-damaged
and pipes covered with asbes-
tos. Mold ills storage areas. An
oil boiler is ineficient and must
be “patched together” to re-
main functional. On rainy days,
leaks quickly ill large garbage
cans — “everything from slow
drips to streams of water.”
A 2013 district bond issue
asked for $128.8 million to
fund a new campus and would
have required $2.16 per thou-
DANNY MILLER/EO MEDIA GROUP
Seaside School District
Superintendent Sheila Roley
speaks during a special
meeting Thursday held to
discuss the upcoming bond
for Seaside schools.
sand dollars of assessed val-
ue for property owners. That
measure failed at the polls.
The new bond equates to
about $1.35 per thousand, a
37.5 percent total reduction in
cost from the previous bond.
A proposed auditorium was
eliminated to reduce costs, as
were plans to rebuild Seaside
Heights Elementary School.
“The board heard the mes-
sage when it was defeated last
Q&A
Dougherty looks beyond the bond
Seaside Superintendent-emeritus Doug
Dougherty answers questions about
the $99.7 million bond the School
District Board of Directors decided to
put to the voters in November.
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
Q: Given the mold and asbestos
you’ve described in Seaside schools,
what is the health risk for students as
the school year beings?
Doug Dougherty: We have had the
mold tested. It is not at a level that would
cause great concern. The mold was in a
storage area. It wasn’t in the classrooms.
The lead pipes have been encapsulated for
years and decades. They’re perfectly safe.
We have had asbestos people who special-
ize in that come and periodically check that
as well.
Q: When will the plans for the new
school campus be available?
A: We met with the architects, the irm
Dull Olson and Weeks, on Friday. It could
be a few days or it could be a few weeks.
Q: Do you intend the new facility to
act as an emergency shelter?
A: Yes. We’ll have a structure where
we’ll be able to house people in. It will be
built to stay safe to stand in a 9.0 earth-
quake. The only level higher is for hospi-
tals.
Q: What are the schools that would
be moved out of the tsunami inundation
zone?
A: Gearhart, Broadway Middle School
and Seaside High School.
Q: In the 2013 bond plan, you were
originally going to close Seaside Heights
DANNY MILLER/ EO MEDIA GROUP
Former Seaside School District super-
intendent Doug Dougherty presents
information about the current state of
Seaside schools. The Seaside School
Board held a special meeting to release
the upcoming Seaside school bond.
Elementary School. What will happen
to that school?
A: We are adding an addition to Sea-
side Heights Elementary. … That will help
the additional students that will be coming
from Gearhart Elementary School.
Q: How many students will the new
campus hold?
A: It will hold 1,700. We currently
have 1,550 students.
Q: Will the middle school and high
school be separate?
A: They will be fairly close to one an-
other for eficiency purposes. It will cost
us less for us to be able to do that.
Q: What will happen to the old schools?
A: Those will be sold whenever the
board decides they want to sell them. That
money could go to an auditorium or could
be sold. I believe most of those areas are
zoned residential.
Q: If this school bond doesn’t pass,
do you have a Plan B?
A: Sen. Ron Wyden came to me and
said the relocation of Seaside schools is
a matter of life and death. I have all types
of scientists basically concurring that the
schools need to be moved soon, for that
reason. That’s only part. The other part
that’s very important for our community
is to understand the current conditions of
our current structures. Those are crum-
bling. In the last ive years, we’ve had
to spend an average of $300,000 a year
in emergency repairs per year because
buildings are structurally deteriorating.
Q: Are you a paid consultant?
A: I’m doing this as a citizen. I’m still
working for the school district. But I am
off hours at this time.
Q: If this does pass, do you see fed-
eral involvement and state involve-
ment more likely?
A: I’ve been here 15 years trying to
get federal and state monies. Sen. Wyden
and Sen. Merkley had two $10 million re-
quests for us. Those didn’t go anywhere.
There’s still currently money out there
school districts all over the state can ac-
cess, that we cannot access because our
schools are in tsunami inundation zone.
I get a lot of support from legislators,
from our senators, (U.S. Rep.) Suzanne
Bonamici, everybody, but the problem
is, accessing those funds has been very
dificult for them. Am I optimistic? Do I
hope? I hope there are additional funds.
But we need to move forward.
Q: If the voters approve the $99.7
million bond, will there be hidden or
additional costs?
A: What we have been told, of all the
school projects this architectural irm
has done, they’ve never gone over bud-
get.
Cannon Beach Academy updates school district
Academy aims for
approval without
conditions
By Lyra Fontaine
EO Media Group
In order to qualify for
grants and gain more inancial
security, Cannon Beach Acad-
emy needs the Seaside School
District’s approval of its char-
ter application without condi-
tions, school leaders said.
The conditions can be ad-
dressed during contract negoti-
ations after the charter approv-
al, Cannon Beach Academy
stated in an Aug. 19 message.
“If you have an approved
charter, versus an approved
with conditions charter, you
have an exponentially better
chance of getting grants and
awards,” the academy’s in-
terim executive director Ryan
Hull said at the August district
board meeting. “What that
doesn’t do is remove things
that you want us to be held ac-
countable for.”
Cannon Beach Academy
can apply for Oregon Depart-
ment of Education charter
school implementation grants
that will be available in spring.
Seaside School District ex-
pects to resolve the charter
application before the grant
application period, Superin-
tendent Sheila Roley said.
“I think we as a board see
the urgency of getting those
things done,” district board
member Steve Phillips said. “It
sounds like we are on the same
page and moving forward.”
The academy met with Ro-
ley prior to the board meeting.
“We’ve been in good com-
munication and trying to move
to the best outcome for all of
our kids,” Roley said.
The district approved the
academy in October under
conditions, such as that the
school would serve at least 44
kindergarten and irst-grade
students in its irst year. In
March, the district withdrew
conditional approval, stating
that the academy fell short
on funding, enrollment and a
state-approved English Lan-
guage Learning program.
The academy will be work-
ing closely with the school
district in the next few months,
including going over budgets
for K-1, K-2 and K-3 options,
academy board president Kel-
lye Dewey said.
Cannon Beach Academy is
currently working to re-submit
its application with revised
sections.
“Our goal is to work to-
gether and be part of the dis-
trict,” Dewey said.
An enrollment update
would likely happen early next
year, Hull said.
Cannon Beach Academy
also announced that it has
raised $10,000 through com-
munity donation jars in local
businesses and redeemable
bottle collections.
DANNY MILLER/EO MEDIA GROUP
The audience listens as the Seaside School District Board
presents information about the new Seaside school bond.
time,” Phillips said prior to the
board vote. “People were con-
cerned about that price.”
The new bond was “looking
at what we honestly have to
have, not just as a safety factor
for our children, but to replace
deteriorating buildings that
are starting to cost the district
money that we don’t have.”
Phillips said. “I think people
will understand we’re looking
at things we really need, not
just a wish list.”
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