Superintendent Witty discusses highlights of recent board meeting
By Shannon McKone on Monday, July 26th, 2021 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories
BAKER CITY – Baker School District Superintendent Mark Witty spoke with Elkhorn Media Group staff recently and gave an update on the most recent school board meeting.
(Q) Mr. Witty. Let’s talk about some highlights from the July 22 school board meeting.
(A) We opened our July board meeting with a warm welcome to our two new board members, Travis Cook and Jessica Dougherty, who both took their Oath of Office.
The board also elected Chris Hawkins as Chair and Julie Huntington as Vice Chair for the coming school year.
Additionally, we discussed updates on the general obligation bond and associated projects. The private sale of the bond elicited bids from 11 banks; and the projected levy rate is $0.61 per $1,000 of assessed value, a savings from the originally estimated $0.66 per $1,000 of assessed value.
The Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee met for the first time this past Tuesday, July 20, and will be part of the selection process for the Project Manager.
The board also passed Resolution 22-09 which meets the requirements to receive the $4 million dollar matching grant from the state of Oregon through the Oregon School Capital Improvement Matching Grant in support of the Bond Projects.
(Q) It sounds like a full meeting. Did I also hear correctly that the board received a presentation from the group advocating for a Baker City Quiet Zone?
(A) That’s correct, Shannon. We were asked to support a Quiet Zone in the interest of students at South Baker Intermediate, who are subject to multiple train horn blasts through the day and night at noise levels proven hazardous to highly hazardous to both children and adults. The school board has been asked by the Quiet Zone Citizen’s Committee to lend our support to a letter they are delivering to the Baker City Council as well a help with the cost of improving the safety of the railroad crossings near the school in order to assist with the establishment of a Quiet Zone.
(Q) Is there anything else that came up in the meeting that we should know about?
(A) We are looking forward to a great 2021-22 school year in the Baker School District. The first day of school will be Monday, August 30, with an expectation of full-time, in-person instruction available to all students.
Online registration is available now, with in-person registration planned for August 9-12.
We will continue to work with the Baker County Health Department and follow guidance from the Oregon Department of Education to make sure that students have a safe and healthy environment for optimal learning. We recently sent out a press release regarding COVID-19 protocols and will provide additional updates as new guidance is released.
