Seabeck Community to School Board: Save Vacant School Site
Last night the Central Kitsap School District board of directors held a public hearing to receive comments about what it should do with the vacant Seabeck Elementary School site.
Because the district has two pieces of property in Seabeck — one at the vacant school site, and another on Larsen Lane waiting to be developed — the board is looking at selling the 13-acre site. District administrators know once enrollment numbers start to climb, which could be in another three to four years, a school will be needed in Seabeck again. When that opportunity presents itself, the district will build a new school on the Larsen Lane property.
Attendance at the hearing was strong, however only nine people spoke to the board. Of the nine, only one was not a Seabeck resident, but she is a taxpayer within the district. All of the comments were in favor of the district keeping a portion of the property in public use (even the non-Seabeck resident’s comment).
Along with community members attending the meeting, Chief Ken Burdette of Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue was there. Burdette said the fire department might be interested in a portion of the school property near its existing fire station, which is staffed by volunteers. Everything is preliminary, he cautioned, but the fire department wants to be prepared for future growth, and he knows some day they will need a larger station on that site that could be fully staffed. As the site sits now, it’s not large enough to handle an expanded station, which is why the department might be interested in acquiring a portion of the school site.
The big surprise of the evening was a comment made by Seabeck resident Michael Reeves, who has longtime ties to the Seabeck community. Reeves told the board, but really more the community, his life dream is to purchase a piece of the school property, build a log cabin on the land and then give it back to the Seabeck community for public use. He might actually be able to do that, pending a legal settlement he is currently in the midst of. He didn’t say much about the settlement, because he couldn’t legally, but he wanted the Seabeck community to know he would like to donate the land, if it works out that way.
You can be sure that I’ll be following up on this.
The school board will discuss the public testimony during a Dec. 10 meeting. At that meeting they’ll either confirm their earlier decision to surplus the land, or they’ll make a new decision. My guess is nothing will happen with the site until after the holidays, because the district isn’t rushing anything.
Stay tuned for more on the saga of the Seabeck Elementary School site…
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