Enumclaw Stadium Deal Done, New Usage Fees OK'd

The Enumclaw School Board on Monday night approved the lease and shared use agreement for Enumclaw Stadium with the city of Enumclaw. The , and with the two parties now on board, the uncertainty over how the stadium would be used and maintained in the long term is no more.

As part of the agreement, the City is identified as the sole property owner of the stadium while the School District takes on all other responsibilities. Some highlights of the agreement, according to City Administrator Mike Thomas' staff report last week, are:

• a 25-year term
• Allows access to the Field House locker rooms and bathrooms during football season but no access to newly remodeled bathrooms
• Allows School District exclusive use of the North Expo parking lot and Field House facilities on Friday nights during football season
• School District picks up utility costs (water, garbage, sewer and electricity)
• School District will replace turf field at the end of its useful life, unless this agreement is terminated within five years 
• City has access to the field for nine consecutive days each summer to accommodate Creationfest. The city can reserve additional days depending on availability.

"The partnership [with the city] was important for us," said Tim Madden, district director of business and operations. "We want each other to be extremely successful."

Superintendent Mike Nelson said that the agreement gave the district the flexibility to schedule the field use as needed, which is important because not only will administrators be considering games but multiple groups will be using the field for practice.

The district has safeguards in the agreement, including the second-to-last bullet above, Nelson added. The estimated life of the turf field is 10 to 12 years, and so should the district have an incentive to back out within five years of this agreement, they wouldn't be held to funding the turf replacement.

Board President Chris VanHoof, speaking for YEAS, said the committee will continue to carry out phase two of the stadium project, which includes new bleachers, locker rooms, concessions and restrooms. "We'll continue fundraising for phase two -- we're not satisfied with just the field."

Managing so many details of the stadium, including utilities and open hours (a condition of the stadium's RCO grant was that the facility be kept open for a reasonable number of hours each day), will be new to the district. "We'll spend the year learning what it is to manage it," Madden said. "It's exciting but it's a new thing we'll be doing."

Part of that new management is setting up a fee schedule for use of the facility. The Board on Monday also passed the proposed fee schedule which, according to Madden, was modeled largely after the fee schedule at Sunset Stadium in Sumner.

The grants that the city and district received mandated that the fees be set up similarly in structure and nature to nearby facilities, said Madden. Administrators looked to White River, Sumner and several neighboring facilities to get a good idea of where to start. 

The fee schedule allows for four types of groups to use the stadium facility:

• Group A: District School Groups
• Group B: Child-related groups or other government agencies
• Group C: Non-profit groups
• Group D: Commercial Enterprises

Rental fees, with a two-hour minimum are has follows:

The funds received from stadium use go toward funding the eventual turf replacement, Madden said. There has been great interest in the community to use the field already, he said.

In other news:

5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning: Nelson introduced the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning, which is a research-based instructional framework designed to support educators that the district hopes to implement. The research is done by the Center for Educational Leadership (CEL) at the University of Washington's College of Education. (see www.k-12leadership.org for more information)

It is about the 'art of teaching,' said Nelson and brings a 'scientific methodology' to education through its cutting-edge research. The Enumclaw School District will be a part of a UW presentation at a conference of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA)

Terry Parker, the district's director of curriculum, instruction and assessment said that for this year, administrators are taking a three-pronged approach to rolling out the 5 Dimensions:

1. Have conversations with school staff at all eight schools about the uniting philosophy.

2. Familiarize teachers with the 5 Dimensions.

3. Determine the 5 best instructional practices in classrooms.

"We're united and committed to implementing this framework," Parker said. "We believe the CEL framework is best and is closest to our philosophies."

The 5 Dimensions dovetales nicely with the district's existing professional learning communities (PLCs), Nelson said. The scientific approach to learning will be beneficial since traditionally, learning is an amorphous act due to different brains working differently.

Questioned by Board Member Nancy Merrill regarding teacher evaluations, Nelson said the aim is to build this into the existing teacher evaluation system while mindful of an outside force (a state mandate) that requires a four-tiered evaluation system in the future (the district's system is currently three-tiered).

Student Q&A: More than 50 students from Enumclaw High School were present at the meeting for class requirements, and VanHoof took the opportunity to open the meeting up for students to ask the Board questions that were brewing in their minds. The students peppered board members with questions about everything from the necessity of math in real life, why math requirements are the way they are, class sizes, their opinion on the school's new gay/straight alliance, and parking passes. 

More than any other topic, however, the students had strong opinions on how bus service could be improved. Board members told the students that the district covers a vast area stretching from Black Diamond to Greenwater, and in order to keep costs down (so the saved revenue can be passed on to them in the classroom), the busses may make fewer stops. They were advised they could contact district transportation to voice their concerns.

Robotics Club Needs Bowling Balls: Board member Corey Cassell, a mentor for Enumclaw High School's , put the call out that the club was in need of racquetballs and six-pound bowling balls for an upcoming competition. If you can help, contact James Lovellford or Kent Basting.