Ballots go out for Quilcene election

Commissioners offer support for Prop. 1

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Jefferson County commissioners threw their support behind the Quilcene School District’s second shot at a 20-year-bond to pay for a new elementary school.

At their meeting Monday, commissioners unanimously approved a resolution to support the $12.3 million bond measure.

The proposal will be on the ballot for a special election Tuesday, April 26.

Proposition 1 needs 60 percent approval from voters to pass; an identical bond measure in February narrowly fell to defeat, with a “yes” vote of 59.4 percent.

Quilcene School Superintendent Frank Redmon outlined Prop. 1 to commissioners Monday, and noted it would replace the existing grade school building, construct a new Career and Technical Education Building, and make athletic facilities and field improvements at the Quilcene campus. 

“We’re trying to accomplish three things with our bond,” Redmon told the board.

That includes rebuilding the elementary school, building a career and technical education space, and addressing longstanding issues with Quilcene’s athletic facilities and fields. 

“We’ve been looking at this for a long time. I’ve spoken with superintendents and emailed — from as many as 20 years ago — and they said that this is long coming,” Redmon told commissioners. “It’s an issue that has needed to be addressed since the ’90s.”

He noted the elementary school was built in 1946, with an addition in 1948.

“It’s an aging structure and it’s built for a type of education that doesn’t exist anymore,” Redmon said, praising maintenance staff for keeping the building up and teachers for creating a warm and welcoming space for students.

Quilcene needs to rethink how education is done, he added.

“We expect our students to be more collaborative. We expect them to be problem-solvers. We expect them to think about their education more holistically. And when we have a building that is set up to keep students isolated and in small spaces apart from each other, it makes all those things a little more difficult,” Redmon said.

With other students preparing to leave school upon graduation, they have to be given experience for what their future careers may feel like, and that’s the importance of the technical education space.

The last bond passed in Quilcene was in 1998, to rebuild the multi-purpose room, and the wood shop/auto shop was taken down and never replaced.

The school’s athletic fields are bumpy and soggy, or hard and dry, and don’t meet requirements for playoff games due to field conditions.

Quilcene regularly has state-level teams. 

“We can’t host games because of the way the fields are set up,” he said.

Redmon said the measure, if passed, would add roughly $500 in annual property taxes for the owner of a median-priced home in south county.

The resolution passed by commissioners noted Quilcene’s elementary school was in need of replacement because it is “obsolete, in poor

repair and in dire need of replacement,” adding that the school “is not seismically survivable, has failing heating systems and poorly performing roof, wall and window systems that make it challenging to keep their students warm, safe, and dry.”

The resolution also calls out the district’s Career and Technical Education program being temporarily housed in a converted shop “that is wholly inadequate,” as well as the the school’ s athletic fields and facilities.

“Best of luck to you,” Commissioner Kate Dean told Redmon after the vote to approve the resolution.

“I’m forever going to have the vision of soggy fields,” added Commissioner Heidi Eisenhour.

Ballots for military and overseas voters were mailed March 25, and remaining ballots for voters in the Quilcene School District boundaries were scheduled to be mailed April 6.

An official logic and accuracy test of the county’s ballot tabulating system was done Tuesday.

Jefferson County Election Coordinator Quinn Grewell said there were 1,618 active registered voters in the Quilcene School District as of April 1.

Grewell also said eight new residents in Quilcene had registered to vote from the day after the February election through March 30.

Residents can still register to vote online or by mail through April 18, and in-person voter registration continues through 8 p.m. on ElectionDay, April 26.