Question of the Week: How Do you Feel about building a new High School in TD?
By Tom Peterson
People of The Dalles will be asked to support a new The Dalles High School on the Wahtonka Campus this November at a cost of $140 million over thirty years. That would cost the owner of a home with a Wasco County Property Tax valuation of $220,000 (the average assessed value in the district) $601 a year or $50 per month.
So how do some locals who live in the D21 School District feel about it?
That led to our question of the week: What are your thoughts on a new high school? Here is what the first seven people we ran into told us this morning, Aug. 6:
Karla Watson, 63, The Dalles
“A new high school would be great for all the kids,” Karla said this morning, Sunday, Aug. 6. “I graduated from Wishram in ‘78.”
“We don’t own a home,” she added, but noted the cost of higher taxes would be passed along. “It’s a beautiful high school but it needs repairs our hospital does too.”
Greg Snethen, 49, The Dalles
“Yeah of course,” he said of building a new high school. “It’s all positive. You have to be positive in life.” Greg said he graduated from Beaverton and was also currently renting his home in The Dalles.
Fred Wensenk, 48, The Dalles
“I think they need a new school,” he said, noting he moved to The Dalles a couple of years ago. Fred said he came to the conclusion “just from talking with people that have kids in The Dalles. The school building does not have a good reputation.”
Richard Siglin, 35, The Dalles
Richard said he was just moving to The Dalles from Maupin but noted he had two kids.
“It would be good for a new school to go through,” he said. “If it’s an old run-down school.”
His friend Shane Ervin noted that the cost of the school would increase taxes. He also said he loved the original high school. He also pointed out that he had gone to The Dalles Middle School in the 1990s before it was torn down. He said he remembered cracks in those buildings being 6 inches wide before the buildings were deemed unsafe for students and staff and a new Middle School was built.
“I’ve got kids and I am going to buy eventually,” Richard said of purchasing a home and having to pay property taxes.
Meghan and Scott Kelsey, 36 and 31, respectively, The Dalles, with their dog Henry
“We definitely need one,” Meghan said, noting she graduated from Wahtonka High School.
“It (TDHS building) is definitely past the point,” Scott said, noting he had pretty good intelligence that the building was in need of replacement. “That boiler situation is not safe, he said of the school’s 1942-era heating system. “Sometimes you just got to bite the bullet. We don’t have kids, but we need a school.”
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