Royal schools start year in almost-finished buildings

ROYAL CITY — School in Royal is off to a great start for the year, Superintendent Roger Trail told the Royal School Board Monday night.

“We have opened school to what I would say probably the best we've done since pre-COVID,” Trail said. “Everyone just seemed to be in really fantastic spirits without all the extra rules and regulations that we've had to solve for the last couple of years. So that's been nice.”

Royal schools have been undergoing construction and renovations since November 2020, and are closing in on being complete, Trail said. Royal High School students started the year with work still going on, he said, but not anything that would interfere with classes.

“There's still some things that are still not finished, but it wasn't so much that we couldn't get into the buildings and have class,” he said. “We are at the very tail end with most projects with the exception of the bus garage, which is just getting started.”

Trail showed a presentation of photos that showed the progress on the bus garage, as well as new school offices and signs and the mostly-completed Royal High School commons and gym.

Three Royal High School students addressed the board about the success their 4-H and Future Farmers of America groups had had at the Othello Fair earlier in the month. Royal High School ag teacher Abby Cate spoke after them.

“I'm sure you've heard that quote that you need a lawyer maybe once in your life, a doctor maybe once a year, but you need a farmer every day, three times a day,” she said. “And when we look at the future of ag and the fact that by the year 2050, we're looking at feeding 9 billion people on our planet, I think (fellow RHS ag teacher Lizzie William) and I both take it pretty seriously that our job is to recruit the best and brightest to work in agriculture. And I think, looking at these young people and the responsibility that they've been able to take on, we're in good hands.”

Royal Middle School teacher Theresa Piper spoke about the school’s robotics program.

“Last year when we competed, they got second place in state, it was pretty huge,” she said. “And what's interesting is, typically state in the past has been divided into two, so you have east side state and west side state. Last year, we just had one state where it was all combined. And they took second place, which means they would have won state for our region had it been separated. And so it was really exciting for them. It was the best the program's ever done.”

Piper asked the board to approve field trips for the club. The theme for the year is energy, she said, and suggested field trips to a wind farm and to Rocky Reach Dam north of Wenatchee.

Finally, Trail presented maps showing that the Royal School Board districts had changed slightly based on information from the 2020 census. The population has increased in the MarDon area, he explained, so district 3, represented by Nasario Solis Jr., has increased slightly while District 5, represented by Alison Huntzinger, is slightly smaller.

Joel Martin may be reached at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.