Wahluke School Board approves gift of field house

MATTAWA — The Wahluke School Board voted to accept the gift of a field house from the Wahluke Enrichment Organization (WEO) during a meeting on Tuesday, April 9.

“The WEO is a community group organized to provide services to students,” said Robert Eckert, Wahluke School District superintendent. “They want to construct a field house on campus, then donate it to the school district.”

The WEO provides after-school, weekend and summer activities for Wahluke schoolchildren. The field house, which will be a 50-foot by 100-foot building, will be used by both the school district and the WEO.

“The school district would have first right of use since it was a gift,” Eckert said. “WEO would get second use rights for use of their programs. If it was still available, then a community organization would have the right to use it.”

Currently, the project is waiting on building permits and authorization from the city and county.

“It will probably be an early summer project,” said Eckert. “Once it gets approved, it will go up pretty fast.”

The WEO is working with local businesses to get supplies and volunteers to help with the building. In other news, a proposal was made to make up snow days at the end of the school year.

“We missed three days,” Eckert said. “Two occurred during Governor Inslee’s emergency declaration. We submitted a waiver request to OSPI to not make up days missed during that week. The other day would be made up on Monday, June 10. If the emergency waiver is not approved, we would have to go all three days that week. Once the waiver is approved, we will finalize that that’s what we’re going to do.”

The board voted to approve the purchase of a skid steer loader for the maintenance department. They also voted to replace old Chromebooks with new equipment. A vote to approve the 2019/2020 school calendar was put on hold due to questions that will need to be addressed.

Rachal Pinkerton may be reached via email at rpinkerton@suntribunenews.com.