Community volunteers sought for Wahluke facility committee

MATTAWA — People interested in helping write a plan to determine when and how the Wahluke School District will maintain and upgrade its facilities, among other things, are being invited to be part of a planning committee. The first meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. March 11 in the Wahluke School District office, 411 Saddle Mountain Drive.  

Wahluke Superintendent Andy Harlow said there are some community members on the committee, but he’s hoping to add more. That’s because community support is critical to making any plan work. 

“We have (administrators) and we have staff that are wanting to be involved, but we really need community members,” he said. “We have four (district patron) commitments, but we’d like to get 10 community members. We’d like to get as many of them that are interested, because they’re the ones that, in the end, make sure this whole thing happens, long after all of us are gone.” 

District voters approved a capital levy in February that will be used to pay back a loan taken out to upgrade the heating-cooling system at Mattawa Elementary. The levy money also will pay for upgrades to the security and fire alarm systems in WSD’s three elementary schools and Mattawa Junior High. Harlow said the committee will be working to determine what comes next, in what sequence and how much it might cost. 

The committee will be focusing on the next 10 years, Harlow said. As part of it, work committee members will be looking at all district expenditures, he said. 

“Everything we do is in this plan. It can be anything from buying a bus to buying curriculum to replacing a roof to repairing the high school track,” he said. “We’re looking at every detail on this.” 

The district had a facility plan at one time, Harlow said. But projects were deferred, the plan became outdated and now needs a complete review. 

Participants on the committee will meet twice per month from March to May, he said. Each meeting will focus on one or two different buildings. 

“What we intend to do is walk the district,” he said. “We’ll do a couple of buildings or facilities each meeting, and then we will take all the input and start to build a plan.” 

Some maintenance needs have been addressed, the Saddle Mountain Elementary roof being an example. It was replaced using federal funding the district received during the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal funding also paid for a new video system. But there are still projects to be done, and Harlow said the committee will try to prioritize them. 

Among other things, some of the elementary schools need roof repairs; the Wahluke High School heating-cooling system is in need of upgrades. The WHS track is in poor repair.  

“Our tennis courts — we've got five tennis courts and three of them are breaking apart,” Harlow added. 

The first meeting will start with a review of the committee’s job, followed by a tour of Mattawa Elementary, next door to the district office.  

Once there’s a list of potential projects, district officials will start looking at how much they’re going to cost, he said. Cost will be one of the biggest factors in setting priorities.  

District officials have been looking for money to help pay some of the costs. 

“We’ve been writing grant (applications) like crazy for HVAC upgrades and we just wrote a grant for tennis courts. We want to maximize every dollar,” he said. 

It’s crucial to get community involvement to ensure the projects in the plan are not deferred, he said. 

“We really need community members to be part of this process as well, because it can’t just be our project. We really have to let the community know what their investment is,” he said.