EVOS Payout May Benefit High School

Jay Barrett/KMXT

At Tuesday night’s assembly work session Kodiak Island Borough Mayor Jerome Selby gave a sneak preview of his plan for using what money may be forthcoming from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill punitive damages case.

Selby said a number of years ago the borough created a plan for its share of the EVOS money, but given how little the pay out will actually be, he’d like to propose a new plan: put it all toward a new Kodiak High School.

— (Schools 1 41 sec "At the time we set up … the Shuyak money.")

Selby says the borough should get about 800-thousand dollars from the settlement, and, if the plaintiffs win interest, maybe double that. He says that amount of money could be used to create detailed plans for a new high school to give residents a better feel for what they would be buying the next time a bond measure for it appears on the ballot.

A ballot measure to authorize 115-million dollars in bonds failed in October, by a vote of 1,432 NO to 971 YES votes.

School Superintendent Stuart McDonald said at last night’s meeting that he learned a lot about how to present such a bond to the public in the future:

— (Schools 2 23 sec "There were a lot … lost in 115-million dollars.")

McDonald said he had a 32-step plan to build a new high school, and that the project here is on Step 9, acquiring financing. Mayor Selby suggested going back a few steps to the design, using the EVOS money to flesh that out.

The only school board member who could make it to the meeting was Petal Ruch (roosh), who suggested the assembly and board get together to lay the groundwork for readdressing the new high school project:

— (Schools 3 17 sec "I just think it … would be really beneficial.")

Selby suggested they start meeting sometime in January.

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