Northwind January 7, 2016

President Sharon led us in the pledge of allegiance and Jim Blaney provided the invocation.

Guests today: John Mutchler (new mayor of Ferndale) and Eric Battle; both guests of Tim V.
Visiting Rotarian:  Terry Brown from Bellingham Bay Club.

Members attending today: Linda Quinn, Jill Iwasaki, Pati Villhauer, Dale Holt, Marlene Sexton, Ken Richardson, Jim Blaney, Jim Sands, Rollo VanSlyke, Deb Wiggs, Julie Johansen, Sharon Robinson, Bill Grace and Stan Brunner. 15/25.  Let’s work on getting that ratio up!
Announcements included the need for Duck Race sponsors. All members are strongly encouraged to bring in a sponsor.  We need $21,000 to cover the costs of the race and the winning tickets. We have $4,000 pledged to date and we need the sponsors before printing the tickets, so time is of the essence!

The Career Fair is slated for 3/31 and will be held at either WCC or BTC and is leaning towards BTC. Dale is still seeking a key note speaker and has a few he is working on, but if anyone has someone great in mind, please pass it on to Dale.

 

Happy Bucks:  Julie was $60 happy for semi-retirement after 40 years in public accounting and a 17 year wedding anniversary with Bob and $3 sad for tail bone injury on New Year’s Eve. Bill was happy for his holiday trip to Longview to celebrate with family. Jill was happy for the marriage engagement of their son Jason on Christmas morning. Tim was happy for Ken Griffey Jr. induction to baseball hall of fame on the first try with 99% of the vote (highest ever). Pati was happy for our guests, speakers and Seahawks. Dale was $55 happy for his birthday and a welcome to John Mutchler and Eric Battles. Marlene had an early leaver apology buck as she was the rescue party for a child care crisis and celebrating her youngest daughter’s birthday of 34 years…where did they go?  Ken and Jim Blaney were happy to be here and to be celebrating yet another new year. Jim Sands was happy for two sunny days in a row, and Rollo had a great holiday vacation. Deb and Sharon both had happy dollars for great holiday celebrations with family, Linda was just happy and Stan is happy for the new year (and he is in it) and his cardio doc giving him a clean report and rescheduling for another six months. Eric was happy for moving into a new home and his daughter’s high SAT score.
Fine Master: Marlene extracted a series of fines with a series of questions that none of us could answer…baseball, postage stamps, baby boomers, Rotarian cover, breweries in B’ham and more that I lost track of. Specific fines ($6) to Rocky for Marlene “avoidance”…IOU in the box, and Tim and Pati for dachshunds in raincoats on FB and Jim Blaney for his personal serving tray to carry his lunch to the table (smart idea Jim). Julie is fined (double dipping) for her “semi-retirement” and anyone who made it to midnight on New Year’s Eve was fined $2. There may also be an IOU in the box for Laurie as we all missed her and did not want her to be left out.

Banners: “Baby Boomers R 70” was beyond all of us but exceptionally clever, as Stan always is. The “boomer” was a banner with an Australian adult male kangaroo….called a boomer.

Program:  Jill Iwasaki and Linda Quinn provided our program today on the upcoming Ferndale School levy to be voted on and “approved” on February 9th.   First, all voters eligible to vote in the Ferndale election will want to vote to approve the levy and second, if you have a yard and are willing to post a yard sign, Jill has them in her car and would love to get them out into the community.
The reasons you want to approve the levy are many but the bottom line is there is a zero increase to Ferndale property owners’ taxes and the levy provides all of the funding for the extracurricular programs that make Ferndale schools great! Get out and vote..but wait, you can “mail” it in. 
Linda explained the distinction between a school levy and a bond. The bonds are for buildings and while Ferndale HS still needs a bond to repair some ancient infrastructure that will be for another time. The “levy” that is now before the voters is for operations and it represents 25% of the school district budget. The old levy expires on 12.31.16 and the new levy (when approved) will pick up on 1.1.17 at the same rate as the old levy that is expiring (thus, zero increase in taxes).
Ferndale has many programs that make it a great school district- from the early learning pre-school to all day kindergarten to AP college prep classes, special needs programs, STEM classes, career and tech program, aqua culture program, many clubs and issuing every student a personal I-pad. None of these programs are state funded and only levy money can be used to support them. The most important distinction that FHS offers is the 8 period day schedule that allows students to earn 32 credits each quarter rather than the 6 period day and 24 credits available in other high schools. This allows time for music and language and PE that enhances the education for each student.
Linda and Jill talked about the strategic plan and the fine volunteer leadership of the district along with excellence in being good custodians of public funds. The maximum allowed amount for the levy is 14-15 million so as the population of Ferndale grows, the allocation to each property owner is diluted, so the per unit cost of the levy will go down rather than up over time.

 

 

 

Summary of statistics:
 27.5% = all salaries supported with levy funds
66%   = portion of classified positions paid with levy funds (this is everyone except certified teachers).
100% = extracurricular activities supported by levy funds
 0% = increase in property taxes to Ferndale property owners.

 

Raffle:  Terry Brown won the day prize (clock) and Bill Grace drew for the 50/50 raffle. He did not pick the ace of spades so the pot grows.  Winners take next week is $288.