Settlement to be reached on school vandalism
COULEE CITY — The Coulee-Hartline School District is moving closer toward putting a disasterous vandalism incident to rest.
District superintendent Ed Fisk said the district is waiting to hear on an insurance settlement regarding the vandalism and theft at the Almira/Coulee-Hartline High School in November 2005.
The district expects to receive word on the settlement in four to six weeks.
"Right now we don't have a very detailed cost of the repairs," said Fisk. "We should get the information we need and begin discussion on a settlement in that period of time."
Two teens were arrested in January in connection with the vandalism and theft at the high school in November, which caused close to $300,000 in water and theft damages.
The juveniles had broken into the school over Thanksgiving break and turned on fire hoses during the burglary. A computer room was reportedly ransacked, and several items including cameras and laptops were stolen. The sheriff's office said many of the stolen items have since been recovered.
The teens were booked into the Grant County Juvenile Detention Center for felony burglary and malicious mischief.
Canfield and Associates of Ephrata has hired a company from California to prepare a cost analysis of the repair work.
The insurance company has indicated it may provide a temporary science classroom at the high school.
When asked about the possibility of having the repair work done over the summer months, Fisk did not think that would be likely at this point.
"If we go with a temporary science room which would probably be a portable type unit, that would happen during the summer," Fisk said. "We're still determining what our final response is gong to be; are we going to repair the building or are we going to do something different?"
In other business at the April 18 meeting of the Coulee-Hartline School District Board:
? The amount of transportation funds allocated for this school year have been increased due to high fuel costs.
? The district expects to hear back by May 1 as to whether the Paul Lauzier grant application the district applied for has been approved.
? Fisk will begin working on a long-term extension of the cooperative agreement with the district's attorney and Almira School District.
? Tony Hein, representing employees from both Coulee-Hartline School District and Almira School District, presented a proposed calendar for the 2006-07 school year. The first day of classes would be Aug. 30 and the last day of classes would be June 8. The board moved to approve the proposed calendar, pending Almira School District approval.