The Brookings-Harbor School District recently received some exciting news for the future of our schools. The district won two new Oregon Department of Education grants — one for a facilities assessment and one to develop a short and long-range facilities plan. Combined, these grants are worth $45,000 and will be used to hire a professional consultant to do an extensive assessment and create updated plans.
You might have also heard that the district was the recipient of three seismic safety grants from Business Oregon totaling $4.5 million. Last summer, the elementary school completed an earthquake retrofit, the middle and high school will be under construction this summer.
What is particularly exciting about the two new facilities grants from Oregon Department of Education is that they will allow the district to look beyond just earthquake safety concerns to the myriad other factors that will impact our schools in the years to come.
Examples of this are needed improvements to classroom learning environments; an evaluation of population growth; and the use of school facilities as community gathering spaces.
The two new facilities grants were awarded through the Oregon Department of Education’s Technical Assistance Program. The grants are meant for districts such as ours that have less than 2,500 students or have more than 25% of students in poverty, or have not conducted a facility assessment in the last 10 years, or have not passed a general obligation bond in the last 15 years.
Completing this work will qualify our district to apply for additional grants and matching fund programs at the state-level.
Thank you to the District Facilities Committee for their diligent work to help earn this new pair of grants to help us protect the important community investment that is our school buildings and to continue to plan for a future where “Every Student Can Succeed.”
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