Castle Rock still mopping up after absorbing Vader
Monday, September 1, 2008 10:29 AM PDT
By Barbara LaBoe
Printable version
E-mail this articleCASTLE ROCK — The Vader saga just won't die for the Castle Rock School Board.
The school district has spent a frustrating year receiving conflicting advice on how to absorb Vader voters into the Castle Rock district. Officials thought they were done with the process earlier this month when they assigned board members to new voting wards. They hoped finally to be able to fill a board seat that's been vacant since November.
Tuesday night, though, School Board Chairwoman Gayle Baker handed out candy to help sweeten the latest bad news.
It seems the district now must put the plan of reorganizing its voting wards before the voters in the November general election. Last week was the first they'd heard of any such requirement, even though they've been working with state and county officials for more than a year.
"They've been trying to do the right thing," said Cowlitz County Auditor Kris Swanson, who worked with the district in recent weeks to help resolve some of the questions. "I could tell they couldn't get an agency whether at the county or the state to really help them out. ... It's such a rare situation and a really daunting task."
Voters won't be asked whether they want to accept Vader into the district; that's already been decided. The school board absorbed the district last summer after Vader voters failed three levy and bond issues and the Vader board voted itself out of existence.
Instead, Castle Rock and Vader voters in Cowlitz and Lewis counties are being asked to approve a change from five geographic voting wards in Castle Rock to three wards and two at-large positions. A simple majority is needed for it to pass.
What happens if it fails? No one's really sure. The likely scenario would be that Castle Rock would have to return to a five-ward board and pay to again have new ward boundaries drawn to include Vader and Ryderwood.
The at-large positions were created with the help of the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Council of Governments staff in December to help make it easier to add the Vader land into the mix. Also, officials hoped it would make it easier to attract potential candidates because not all of them would have to live within a particular ward.
In addition to adding to the confusion, the ballot requirement further delays the board's plans of appointing someone to fill the vacant board seat. Nothing can be done until after the November election, a clearly frustrated Interim Superintendent Susan Barker told the board.
"Nobody knows what to do," Barker said after the meeting. It's been more than three decades since a school district disbanded in the state, leaving state and county officials with few clear-cut rules to follow.
A plan to allow Castle Rock to collect Vader school taxes this school year fell apart when state education officials failed to notice a deadline for the transfer. And title to the condemned school was not transferred to Castle Rock when it took over the Vader district, which officials didn't learn until they applied for a demolition permit.
Swanson said the rules governing the district transfer are confusing because they're spread among several different laws. That's added to the delays and confusion, she said.
Resigned to a further delay, board members are still upset about all the difficulties in what was supposed to be a straightforward process.
"I thought we were done with all that," board member Vilas Sundberg said Tuesday.
"This is insane," Baker agreed.
Facilities director Henry Karnofski said the entire process "has not been easy" but added that the recent meeting with Swanson and Ron Marshall, the county's civil deputy prosecuting attorney, "has been the most productive meeting we've had."
Sundberg suggested that Barker add up all the hours she's spent trying to unravel the requirements so they could see "how much the state has cost us."
"It's not how much the state has cost us," countered Al Gulliford, who sits on the board as a former Vader board member. "It's how much the (Vader) voters cost us."
jackie wrote on Sep 1, 2008 1:57 PM:
bones wrote on Sep 1, 2008 9:46 PM:
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