When it comes to some of the youngest students in the district, there’s a growing need to create an even safer environment at Liberty Elementary School. After assessments of the building, there are concerns about access to the school’s front entrance, growing gaps in the playground’s exterior fencing, and a fire alarm system on the brink of failure. All of these safety issues have been labeled as priority projects that could utilize funds created from the Tillamook School Bond 2025.
Currently, the main entrance to the building locks with a doorbell system to admit visitors.
“Beyond that, it’s kind of our limit. It would be important to have a system that allows us to identify people and determine whether to allow them in or not,” Liberty Elementary School Principal Rachel Williamson said. “With the orientation of the office and the front door, sometimes when the lighting is poor or the sun is glaring on the window, you can’t really see who is pushing the doorbell and requesting to come in.”
Outside the building, recess for kindergarteners and first graders is vital with Liberty students sometimes accessing the outdoor playground area two-three times a day. But, some of the fencing shows increasing areas of failing infrastructure.
“The current fencing was generously donated by a community organization about 10 years ago, but it is residential fencing,” Williamson said. “Residential fencing is great as long as you’re not trying to contain 200 to 300 six year olds daily; they can wear a fence down. As we’ve tried to repair and shore it up, the integrity of the fence is lost and it’s creating gaps on the bottom where kids can crawl through and make their own plan on the other side of the fence.”
The fence line with the biggest deterioration borders the fields adjacent to the Tillamook County Family YMCA.
“During the school day, community members use this area for their dogs and we want to make sure that students remain on our side of the fence for their own safety, and so they’re not interacting with dogs that they don’t know.”
Another priority for the school building is to address restroom needs. Currently, students have access to two sets of restrooms on the south end of the building.
“The majority of the classrooms use those restrooms. It would be really handy if we had a set of restrooms down at the north end of the building,” Williamson said. “Most of the kindergarteners have to walk down the hallway to use a restroom and it would be helpful if they were close to where the students’ classrooms are. It also helps minimize issues when they’re not waiting in line to use an available restroom.”
Lack of adult restrooms in the building is another noted need. For 52 employees at Liberty Elementary School, there are two, single toilet restrooms.
“One of the two restrooms for adults is also utilized by some of our students who have additional needs,” Williamson said. “So really, it’s like there are one and half adult restrooms. Adding one or two adult restrooms would be helpful to support the adults who work in the north end of the building.”
The school building also has a fire alarm system that is in need of an upgrade. Part of the system has received updates through the years, while other parts of the system are grandfathered in and not up to today’s code. Williamson said there are multiple classrooms that do not have an actual alarm inside the room.
“A couple years ago I had them set off the alarm so I could go into the classrooms and see if I could hear them. There’s nothing in the classroom to signal that there is an alarm going off,” she said. “When you’re working and engaged in learning with students, they can tend to get a little bit loud. If you’re really focused on that and there’s a very low ding of an alarm out in the hall, that’s not going to trigger awareness of an emergency. That’s a huge concern, so we definitely need an upgrade.”
Tillamook School District has filed for a bond measure to be on the upcoming May ballot. Measure 29-182 will create a Tillamook School District 2025 bond that will finance critical safety and improvement projects to various district facilities. Projects have been prioritized based on safe schools, healthy students, and responsible stewardship. The 2025 bond will be not exceed a $25.35 million extension of current expiring bonds. If passed, an additional $6 million grant will be awarded from the Oregon School Capital Improvement Match Funds. This bond is not a new tax. This bond extension should maintain the current tax rate of $0.69 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
