Dear Key Communicators:

We will be having three night classes for the community available this spring at the school.  They will be sponsored by Grays Harbor Community College .  Community members will have the opportunity to take Ag Mechanics with Mr. Moten.  Mr. Moten can work with you to rebuild a small engine or learn to weld.  Perhaps you just would like to come and work on a project with the tools we have available.  Mr. Moten will also be teaching a woodworking class on a different night of the week.  The third class that will be offered is a ceramics class taught by Mr. Williams.  The school has an excellent kiln available.  The weight training class we had anticipated being offered will have to wait until next year.

This is a great opportunity for the community to gain access to some of the fine tools and equipment that have been purchased over the last few years.  With the Ag Mechanics class, there has been $20,000 worth of tools and upgrades this year alone.  This has been made possible by $5,000 in levy dollars from the district and $15,000 in grant dollars from the Templin foundation.  The school board has policies in place that encourage wider use of the school facility by the community.  These classes are a great way to accomplish that.  What is really great news is that the classes are only $22.00 for 10 weeks!  Grays Harbor College is able to offer them so reasonably because they too have accessed grant monies to offer such classes.  Classes will begin the week after spring break.  I will let you know when specific days of the week have been assigned for classes.   I will also pass along information for signing up for classes when I receive it.  If you have questions about the classes, the contact at GHC is Leon Lead, and his email is llead@ghc.edu  

On another note, the rhododendrons have been pruned back.  We were able to access free labor from the students at the camp and they did an excellent job.  The ground is too soft at this point to remove all the limbs without tearing things up.  We started to clean up the area near SR4, but found the tractor was sinking in too much.  We may have to wait a bit before the ground firms up.  A good freeze would be nice…  The project to restore the rhododendrons is going well all in all.  We pruned them according to the directions of our nursery consultant and are looking forward to a much healthier grove of rhodies in the future.  The powdery mildew problem we were having should go away now that there is more air flow among the bushes.  I look forward to seeing the new growth in bloom next year.

In the next week, you should notice a new basketball hoop in the elementary playground area.  It is a very nice, permanent model that has a hoop on both sides.  It will give the children an excellent area to shoot hoops when they are out at recess.  Special thanks to the Comet Booster Club for supplying the $2,000 needed to buy it.

Take care,

Alan Bennett
Superintendent
Naselle Grays-River Valley School District #155