Oak Harbor school superintendent claims in the March 19, Whidbey News-Times, “Oak Harbor Schools Plan Capital Projects” that the leaky Clover Valley Elementary (CVE) roof is nearing the end of its life span. If so, it was also nearing the end of its life span in 2001-2002 when the district renovated CVE.

Instead of “fixing up (all) seven of the district’s aging, leaky schools” with $42 million of 1996 voter-approved construction bond money as promised, (they wound up with $12 million more than they had first budgeted), the Oak Harbor School District (OHSD) transferred some extra money to other non-voter approved construction projects (See http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ohsd/ “Capital Projects” for details).

Remodeling the old Alaska Federal Credit Union building for admin offices and a fancy, new picture-window façade for Broad View Elementary library are among those extras.

The CVE roof has leaked since CVE students re-occupied the school in 2002, and perhaps longer. In January 2005, a CVE teacher reported “My room and the room next to mine have been leaking for quite some time. I know mine has been for the entire two years I’ve been in it. It has been patched and re-patched a dozen times but nothing seems to work … When it rains you can literally hear it raining inside the walls … Of greatest concern is the number of children I have had this year that complain of severe headaches … my walls are mushy in places if it’s rained recently.”

The same article also referred to $330K the Oak Harbor Noon Rotary had raised for school district purposes. Perhaps the Rotary would consider giving the school district that money now to replace the CVE roof this coming summer so CVE students and staff could finally enjoy the promise of the 1996 “No More Leaky Roofs” campaign.

William Burnett

Oak Harbor