October 28, 2016 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 7A
Seaside’s crumbling schools
Cannon Beach charter
school wins board approval
Charter school could
open next fall
Condition of buildings in Gearhart,
Seaside add to tsunami fears
By Katherine Lacaze
By R.J. Marx
For EO Media Group
Seaside Signal
It’s one thing to hear about the crum-
bling condition of Seaside’s high school,
middle school and Gearhart Elementary
School. It’s another to take a tour and see
them firsthand.
Even on a relatively good day there’s
no masking the horizontal and vertical
cracks on walls in each of the schools.
It’s hard to miss the weird metal covers
adhering to the Seaside High School
gymnasium roofs, used to block rusted
metal clips used as roof tie-downs that
break off and fall onto the gymnasium
floor. Administrators worry that one
could pop out and strike a student. Re-
placement cost is an estimated $577,000.
On a rainy day, the buckets in the
computer room fill not only with class-
room trash but the steady drips from a
ceiling where plugging holes is like
playing whack-a-mole. Pine needles get
stuck on scuppers and rainwater leaks
through the building’s stucco walls and
onto warped and uneven floors.
And at Broadway Middle School, a
trip to the boiler room reveals a running
pond forming on the ground underneath
antiquated machinery, as a sump pump
churns to calm the rising flow.
At the high school, head custodian
Lonnie Lear maintains a Rube Gold-
berg-styled boiler system built decades
DANNY MILLER/EO MEDIA GROUP
Seaside School District Superintendent-emeritus Doug Dougherty shows the con-
ditions of the boiler room at Gearhart Elementary School.
ago. “Some of it I can fix, some of it is
beyond me,” Lear said.
“A lot of our leaks go through the
walls,” Seaside School District Superin-
tendent-emeritus Doug Dougherty said
as he led a tour through the building,
constructed in 1958.
Few technicians are trained on the
outdated heating components, Lear said.
Voters rejected a $128.7 million bond
proposal to move schools out of the tsu-
nami zone in 2013. The focus of that
vote was emergency preparedness.
This time around, Dougherty hopes
to draw attention to the condition of the
three crumbling schools in addition to
tsunami safety for passage of a pared-
down $99.7 million proposal. Dough-
erty told the Seaside City Council this
month that awareness of the risks from
a seismic event are well-known now in
the community. With that awareness, he
has shifted his focus to the condition of
the schools.
The bond’s success at the polls would
lead to relocation of the Seaside School
District’s three tsunami at-risk buildings
to a new campus on 80 donated acres
east of the highway near Seaside Heights
Elementary School.
The Cannon Beach Acad-
emy saw its goal of opening
for the 2017-18 school be-
come more attainable Tues-
day night when the Seaside
School District Board of
Directors approved the orga-
nization’s charter application
without conditions.
Nearly four years after a
group of residents initiated
an effort to create a charter
school in Cannon Beach, the
organization reached a signif-
icant milestone with the ap-
proval of its charter. With that
piece resolved, the academy’s
board can move forward and
begin finalizing financial de-
tails, apply for grants, plan
for enrollment, prepare the
school building and start hir-
ing staff, according to board
president Kellye Dewey and
board member Barb Knop.
In October 2015, the dis-
trict’s board approved the
charter school’s application
with a set of conditions, such
as the school would serve
at least 44 kindergarten and
first-grade students in its first
year.
The academy’s board
will continue working with
the district, with the goal
“to have a contract in place
by the end of the year,”
Knop said. Open enrollment
should start by March 1, in
preparation for the acade-
my to be operational by the
2017-18 school year. The
academy also can apply for
state charter school grants.
DINING
on the
NORTH COAST
Great Restaurants in:
Dunzer says school
Bond first, design later
bond numbers ‘crazy’ Architects
from Page 1A
Former candidate eyes
‘Plan C’ option
By R. J. Marx
Seaside Signal
Seaside’s John Dunzer
went in front of the City
Council Monday night to
share his opinion on the
council’s recent decision to
endorse the school district’s
$99.7 million bond to move
the school campus.
Officials hope to protect
student lives by moving
three schools — Gearhart
Elementary School, Seaside
High School, and Broadway
Elementary School — out
of the tsunami evacuation
zone. Dunzer said there are
better ways to do it than the
way Seaside School District
is doing it.
“I love the kids, and I’ve
done the school bond drives
— but this money is crazy,”
Dunzer said. “This $100
million is crazy. You’ve got
1,500 kids. We’ve got 500
students in Seaside Heights
High School, because we’re
not ripping that down. That
means we have about 1,000
kids we’re building the
school for at $100 million
— that’s $100,000 a kid.”
Looking at per stu-
dent construction numbers
around the country, cost is
“somewhere in the $30,000
range per student,” he said.
A 2013 bond measure
asked voters for $128.8 mil-
lion to fund new schools.
That number was rejected
by voters. Supporters hope
this year’s bond issue will
find success. Along with tsu-
nami safety, officials have
pointed to the “crumbling
schools” and say they need
to be replaced.
In a letter to the Signal,
Dunzer proposed a “Plan C”
which would accomplish the
same objectives but at a cost
of $50 million. “Voting for
Plan C would allow funds to
be available to improve the
bridges, which will provide
safety for students during
the 71 percent of the time
they are not at school and all
the rest of the residents and
visitors,” he wrote.
Dunzer, who ran for
mayor in 2014 and was on
the ballot for county com-
mission earlier this year,
said the bond was “not do-
ing the kids any favor be-
cause I don’t think that $100
million number is worth
diddly-squat. It’s way, way,
way too high. For anyone
who understands anything
about division, multiplica-
tion — it’s all there. When
you say ‘I think it’s a great
idea,’ you should do your
due diligence.”
the site would not be devel-
oped, Olson said, and building
would be off-limits within 100
feet of fish-bearing streams.
There are no environmen-
tal concerns with the property,
Superintendent-emeritus Doug
Dougherty said Tuesday.
Dougherty said the district
will continue to work with the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife and the Necani-
cum Watershed Council on the
property development.
About $2 million of the
bond is necessary to protect the
schools against coastal condi-
tions and slope of the campus,
which will also be designed to
shelter residents in the case of
a disaster.
Test borings and a geotech-
nical analysis of the property
were conducted in 2013, when
a separate bond package failed
to win voters.
Engineered pier foun-
dations added an additional
$2.75 million to this year’s
budget. “We do know that be-
cause of the nature of the slope
we’re going to have to do
some specialized foundation
work to stabilize the hillside,”
Olson said.
Olson said his firm has de-
signed many Oregon schools
and public buildings subject to
the same seismic requirements.
“We know what we have to do
to meet the code and stand up
to a seismic event,” he said.
The majority of Olson’s
Boone
State Representative
HD 32, Democrat
Native Oregonian
Rural homeowner in HD 32 since 1974
“ The endorsement of representative Deborah
boone is the result of careful consideration by
the sheriffs of oregon. We are confident Deborah
will promote laws designed to better protect
oregonians and their families by making law
enforcement more effective.”
— Sheriffs of oregon PAC
“ boone’s lengthy tenure, experience and record
of accomplishments make her our choice to fill
the seat.”
— The Daily Astorian (Oct. 14)
Deborah is aLso enDorseD by:
Oregon Nurseries PAC
Oregon State Building &
Constructions Trades Council
Oregon State Firefighters Council
Oregon State Council
for Retired Citizens
National Electrical Contractors Assn.
Oregon AFSCME Council 75
Oregon Coalition of Police & Sheriffs
Cultural Advocacy Coalition
American Federation of
Teachers–Oregon (AFT-Oregon)
Sen. Ron Wyden
Sen. Jeff Merkley
Oregon School Employees Assn.
Basic Rights Oregon Equality PAC
Stand for Children Oregon
Humane Oregon
BooneforStateRep.org
Paid for by: Boone for State Representative P.O. Box 637, Cannon Beach, OR 97110
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“Another piece that im-
pressed us was that, out of 19
architectural firm proposals
that were submitted, they were
the only firm that had never
been over budget on a proj-
ect,” Dougherty said.
Yumei Wang, a geotechni-
cal engineer with the Depart-
ment of Oregon and Geolog-
ical Mineral Industries based
in Portland, will consult on
the project at no
cost to the dis-
trict, he added.
Seaside
School District
serves
1,550
students from
Yumei Wang communities
across
south
Clatsop County. Gearhart El-
ementary School, Broadway
Middle School and Seaside
High School are located near
sea level, endangering all stu-
dents and school staff in the
event of a tsunami. The build-
ings are rated by the Oregon
Department of Geology and
Mineral Industries as having a
high probability of catastroph-
ic collapse in an earthquake.
“In terms of our work, we
don’t anticipate doing any
more work on our part until
after the election,” Olson said.
“We have our fingers crossed
and hopefully the bond will
pass.”
GEARHART
SEASIDE
CANNON BEACH
Seaside Downtown
Development Association
39 N. Holladay • PO Box 133
Seaside, OR 97138
503.717.1914
seasidedowntown.com
Flower
Baskets
For 20 years, the flower baskets
have beautified the streets of
Seaside and we owe it all to the
support of our generous sponsors
and the City of Seaside. The Seaside Downtown
Development Association appreciates your
contribution to the purchase and maintenance
of the flower basket program. Thank you!
SPONSOR $500 or more
• Holiday Inn
• Kenneth & Kathy Hyde
• Pig N’ Pancake
• Seaside Aquarium
• Seaside Carousel Mall
• Seaside Chamber
Ambassadors
• TerHar Family
PATRONS $200 or more
• Bank of the Pacifi c
• Caff é Latte
• Finn’s Fish House
• Funland Entertainment
• Gearhart Dentistry
• Mary Anna’s 6.99, 12.99 &
14.99 Stores
• Norma’s Seafood & Steak
• Pacifi c Power
• Pizza Harbor Inc.
• Seaside Fultano’s Pizza
•
•
•
•
Sign One Signcrafters
Son Wester Garden Club
Tipton’s
Twisted Fish Steakhouse
SUPPORTERS
• Cotton Club
• Doug & Cheryle Barker
• Flashback Malt Shoppe
• Fred Loser
• Gearhart Dentistry
• Inn at Seaside
• J. Michael & Janet Perry
• JoAnne McIntyre
• Julie Mespelt
• Justine Hill
• Karen Emmerling
• Kenneth & Kathy Hyde
• Lucille Summerfi eld
• Moberg & Rust
Attorney at Law
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nicolle Landwehr
Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church
Pizza Harbor Inc.
Russ & JoAnn Vandenberg
Randy Frank
River Inn Seaside
Ron Bline
Sand & Sea Condominiums
Shilo Inn Oceanfront
Steve Wright
Stuart Properties LLC
Suzanne Zimmerman
The Man Store
The Jewelry Box
Tom & Gini Dideum
Tri-City Spay & Neuter
Thrift Shop
Wayne Poole
Wexler Holladay Drive LLC
White Properties
Will Perkins
SPONSORSHIPS AVAILABLE YEAR ROUND!
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Seaside • 323 Broadway • 738-7234 (Open 7 Days)
Cannon Beach • 223 S. Hemlock 436-2851 (7am-3pm Daily)
Astoria • 146 W. Bond • 325-3144
WANNA KNOW WHERE THE LOCALS GO?
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1104 S Holladay • 503-738-9701 • Open Daily at 8am
MAZATLAN
M E X I C A N R E S TA U R A N T
Phone 503-738-9678
1445 S. Roosevelt Drive • Seaside
