Outside the Columbia High School athletic complex.
Chelsea Marr / file photoWHITE SALMON — The seventh meeting of White Salmon Valley School District’s (WSVSD) Facilities Advisory Committee was pivotal, Superintendent Rich Polkinghorn told school board members at their April 24 meeting.
The committee, which last met April 15, “came together with the goal of reaching consensus on a recommendation for our long-term facilities plan, and I’m pleased to report that we achieved unanimous agreement in support of the two-facility model,” Polkinghorn said.
He emphasized several times that the following is a recommendation only, not a final decision, and the next step will be community engagement to weigh interest. A final recommendation is anticipated to come before the board in June or July.
The committee’s recommendation has two components. The first, consolidating three facilities into two, would involve significant renovations at the Henkle Middle / Wallace & Priscilla Stevenson Intermediate School campus “to transform it into a high-quality learning space for students in either grades K-5 or K-6. This would be a substantial modernization project,” Polkinghorn said.
The second focuses on Columbia High School; the committee recommends constructing additional classroom space, along with a flexible area that could serve multiple needs — for example, a cafeteria, commons, performing arts venue and / or a gym.
“This space would ‘infill’ the area between A-Court, C-Court, and the library,” he said, “creating a secure, enclosed campus for students in grades 6-12 or 7-12.”
This model additionally aligns with how the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) classifies facilities and comes with funding opportunities — under the plan, OSPI would recognize WSVSD as operating a K-12 campus, Polkinghorn said.
“That classification unlocks significantly more resources for our capital project,” he added. “Instead of qualifying for around $15 million in School Construction Assistance Program (SCAP) funding, we could access closer to $27 million in flexible funds that can be used where they’re most needed across both sites.”
The Facility Advisory Committee’s recommendation was guided by the district’s trend towards declining enrollment, current building condition assessments, and financial feasibility.
“Most of all, it’s grounded in what we heard from the community last year during our strategic planning process — facilities matter, and they need our attention,” Polkinghorn said. “One of our six strategic goals is to ‘Ensure safe and sustainable WSVSD facilities now and into the future,’ and this recommendation is a meaningful step in that direction.”
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