Colfax school year starts after cleanup scramble
September 12, 2019
Colfax schools started at 8:20 a.m. Sept. 9 for the 2019-20 school year, as planned.
Final cleaning from a summer of construction lasted into Sunday night, Sept. 8, with Superintendent Jerry Pugh, Maintenance Director Mark Brown, Business Manager Reece Jenkin, Technology Director Carter Comito, and a group of other volunteers washing floors and windows and hauling in desks and chairs from storage, dusting them off for use Monday morning.
"We wouldn't have been able to do it, between Mark and I," Pugh told the school board Monday night.
The new furniture has not arrived yet.
A planned volleyball jamboree for Saturday at the high school was cancelled as the building's main bathrooms across the foyer from the gym were not yet ready. Work continued by various subcontractors through the school Saturday and Sunday.
Pugh and Jenkin left at 9:30 p.m. Sunday night, while Comito kept up work on the phone and wi-fi systems.
He left at 2:30 a.m. Monday morning.
Construction will now continue in the fall on the two-year school-wide project. Areas closed off to students, not yet complete for use, are the high school commons – inside the bay windows above the school's main entrance – and the junior high commons, beneath the library on the first floor.
On Monday morning inside the library, an English/language arts class started first period, using the mostly-finished space as a temporary classroom.
Across the road at Jennings Elementary, work continues on the roof, and the gym is not yet open for use, as the lights do not work and some painting and woodwork finishing on the stage remains.
Current construction at Jennings and the junior-senior high school is part of phases one, two and three on the overall project. The next phase is expected to begin Oct. 1 with the westside classrooms on the second floor of the high school.
Pugh and architects from Design West in Pullman, and contractor Wellens Farwell (Enterprise, Ore.) were set to hold their next weekly meeting Wednesday.
"We're making great progress," Pugh said. "I think the community is going to be pleased when it's all complete."
SCHOOL BOARD REPORT
Also at Monday night's school board meeting, the superintendent reported on the district's team-building/teacher development day at Camp Grizzly Aug. 29, featuring an Ozobot competition, archery, an egg drop and canoe race. The event was paid for by professional development funds from the state.
Pugh also sought confirmation of which board members will attend the state Washington State School Directors Association conference Nov. 20-24 in Bellevue.
New ASB representative Cotton Booker, a senior at the high school, gave his report, filling the board in on the football team's 54-21 win over Wahkiakum and a list of fitting and showing champions, reserve champions and otherwise from the fair, including Perry Imler, Sidney Berquist, Cole Baerlocher and Anni Cox.
Booker told the board the ASB officers had settled on a theme for the year: "The Road to Success is Always Under Construction."
The theme for homecoming will be "Hollywood Hills," to culminate in the homecoming dance Oct. 12.
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