Late changes to legislation detailing the requirements for a competitive grant pursued by districts across the state in essence secured more than $5.5 million for the Chehalis School District to build a new STEM facility onto W.F. West High School.
At least one Eastern Washington school district superintendent was mad enough about the legislative maneuvering to send a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee criticizing what he called “insider trading.”
The amended text of the bill dictated that at least one of the grants be awarded to a school in Southwest Washington with a scanning electron microscope and specific technology.
That requirement, added in the late days of an overtime session, essentially delivered the grant to Chehalis.
It’s the only school district in the region — and among the 34 districts that applied — that has the microscope.
The Chehalis and Centralia school districts received a combined $9.1 million from the state for new STEM facilities when the allocations were announced last week.
The news was welcomed by the local school districts, but incensed Chewelah School District Superintendent Rick Linehan. He said in a letter to Inslee the changes to the legislation eliminated the competitive nature of the grant.
“The supplemental budget came out and the rules were changed at the last minute,” Linehan wrote. “The specific changes were not communicated to the finalists until I took the call from the grant evaluators at OSPI and they informed me that the STEM grant had been rewritten … We were in the running until legislators changed the parameters of the grant without notifying the districts that had spent many hours on their proposals.”
The added wording to the budget dictated that “At least one grant award is made to school districts located in Southwest Washington that currently offer curriculum using equipment called Real-Time PCR and a scanning electron microscope to build partnerships with academia and industry leaders to develop in-depth research projects.”
Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, a ranking member on the capital budget in the House, worked closely on the issue.
“The language that was written was written so that the schools that had the facilities in place could get stronger, and because Chehalis was the only one with the electron scanning microscope, we wanted to make sure they had a good facility for that piece of equipment,” he said.
Jeff Burkette, a representative from Eclipse Technologies, previously told The Chronicle that the electron microscope the company had installed at W.F. West was the first the company had put into a high school.
Chehalis Superintendent Ed Rothlin said the district worked with legislative staff when applying for the grant.
Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, told The Chronicle some refinements were made in the criteria, but given most of his time was spent on the operating budget, he said he didn’t know where the wording came from.
“I know they made some changes in the language from the underlying capital budget to the final to make sure we got and gave credit for all the STEM work being done around the state,” Braun said.
DeBolt said the idea was to create a pilot program for STEM that would focus on rural facilities that needed upgrades.
“We have two great school districts that needed to take advantage of that,” he said.
Braun said the grants provide a great opportunity for both of the school districts and recognizes the work taking place to promote STEM education in their schools.
“This allows them to kind of take the next big step in creating better and more specific facilities for STEM education,” Braun said.
“I think it’s a big win for the community and our school districts, and more importantly for the students in the school districts.”
As for DeBolt, he said he sees the benefits when he looks at his daughter, who is graduating with honors and an engineering degree.
“She did the molecular genetics program at Chehalis. I see how that changed her and helped mold her,” he said. “I think about it now and if we can truly make it enhance education and get more kids engaged, it would really mean a lot for us to have those skills for kids.”
The board of directors of both the Centralia and Chehalis school districts at their respective board meetings this week celebrated the $9.1 million awarded to the districts to help expand their STEM capabilities.
The Chehalis School Board passed a resolution at its Tuesday night meeting allowing it to get one step closer to getting the money.
The resolution is part of three steps the six school districts awarded money need to take before receiving any funds from the Washington state’s capital budget, said Justin Rogers, Southwest regional coordinator for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The other steps include presenting a finalized budget, and documentation that shows at least $100,000 in private donations has been acquired. Those donations can come in the form of in-kind, cash or equipment donations, Rogers said.
The districts have until June 30 to complete the three required steps.
The Chehalis School District was awarded $5,520,948 to build a STEM wing onto W.F. West High School. The Centralia School District also received funds in the amount of $3,616,403 to build a STEM facility next to Centralia High School.
Centralia School Board members discussed the grant at their Wednesday night meeting, but a resolution will likely be passed at a later meeting after the donation threshold is met.
The district received its first in-kind donation in the amount of $14,000 from Horizons Educational Consulting.
“It’s really exciting to realize that $3.6 million is coming to our school district,” Board President Kim Ashmore said. “Congratulations to Mark (Davalos) and the team that helped get that through.”
The grant award includes a slight increase in funds after additional money was discovered in the administrative budget, Rogers said.
“Everyone got a little bump, it happened at the last second,” he said.
The local school districts applied for a preliminary STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — grant awarded by OSPI and the Washington STEM organization.
The maximum amount for the STEM grant was officially listed as $4 million, with a total allotment of about $12 million, but Chehalis received more than that through a separate program.
According to Rogers, OSPI had a budget of $19.2 million to award to the schools, utilizing $12 million from the preliminary STEM grant, and about $7.2 million through the School Construction Assistance Program.
Chehalis School District received $5.5 million from a combination of STEM funds and the School Construction Assistance Program, Rogers said.
“So in the end, all the money is mixed together as far as the award goes,” he said.
Assistant Superintendent Mary Lou Bissett told the board she submitted the budget they previously created for the project in the amount of $6.3 million.
The Centralia School District has not yet passed a resolution as they are still in the process of collecting the $100,000 in donations. The Chehalis School District already has the money needed for the match from The Chehalis Foundation.
The Foundation also donated the $100,000 scanning electron microscope to the district in 2013.
