Big changes are ahead in 2020 for the Seaside School District, and make that with a capital “C” for “Construction.”

This is the last year for students in Gearhart Elementary, Broadway Middle and Seaside High school buildings. They’ll be heading to 89 acres in the Southeast Hills in September for the opening of the new campus, along with additions to an expanded Heights Elementary School, to be named Pacific Ridge.

The new schools are part of the $99.7 million plan approved by voters in 2016 to move schools out of the tsunami zone.

Two wings, connected by a corridor that will house a cafeteria, library and administrative offices, will house middle and high school students.

Along with work on the schools, work is underway to build a 5-million-gallon reservoir to supply the campus and surrounding residential areas.

Water lines will be built under a Seaside School District contract. The reservoir and pump station will be under a city contract at a cosst of $5.64 million.

New board members

The Seaside School District filled two interim vacancies in February.

Shannon Swedenborg filled Zone 1, Position 1, after Patrick Nofield stepped down in Cannon Beach. Sondra Gomez replaced Steve Phillips in Seaside.

At the polls in May, Gomez held onto the Zone 5, Position 1 board seat.

Shannon Swedenborg ran unopposed for Cannon Beach’s Zone 1, Position 1, and Mark Truax, won 1,279 votes for re-election to Zone 4, Position 2, based in Seaside.

Attendance initiative

Dogged by troubling attendance numbers, Seaside administrators and staff began a districtwide initiative to turn that trend.

The Oregon Department of Education’s recently released profiles on the Seaside School District and its individual schools shows positive signs in the areas of attendance and graduation rates, while students across the district and state continue struggling with achievement in mathematics.

About 20.4% of students were considered chronically absent — meaning they missed 10% or more of schools days — in the 2018-19 school year, slightly down from 20.5% in 2017-18. The reversal stops a run of four consecutive years with increases in chronic absenteeism of about a percentage point per year.

Key indicators highlighted in the profiles include the number of regular attenders, or students who attended more than 90% of their enrolled school days; academic performance in English language arts and mathematics; ninth-graders on track to graduate; the on-time graduation rate of 12-graders; and class sizes.

Efforts throughout the district are also showing results.

According to the At-A-Glance profiles, the percentage of regular attenders at both Gearhart and The Heights elementary schools increased to 83% for the 2018-19 school year, which is above the state average of 80%. At Seaside High School, the rate of regular attenders increased by 6% to 72% in 2018-19. Broadway Middle School and Cannon Beach Academy both experienced slight decreases in regular attendance.

New names, new mascots

The cheers of more than 700 elementary-aged students filled the gym at The Heights Elementary School on Wednesday, Nov. 20, during a joint assembly with Gearhart Elementary School at which the school’s new name, mascot and colors were unveiled.

Effective July 1, the Seaside School District’s elementary school at the new campus will be called Pacific Ridge Elementary School, while Broadway Middle School is being renamed Seaside Middle School to reflect the relocation.

The new elementary school’s colors will be turquoise, black and silver, while the middle school will transition to white, black, and Columbia blue. The new mascot of Pacific Ridge Elementary School will be the puffin, the colorful bird found off the North Coast. The middle school will remain the Sharks.

Schools on the market

With students and staff vacating existing schools, Gearhart Elementary School, Broadway Middle School and Seaside High School hit the sales block in 2019.

The district will work with the city of Seaside on possible transactions for the high school’s “North 40” and 7 North Broadway, owned by the school district but home to the Seaside Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.

A deal to sell Cannon Beach Elementary School to the city was approved this summer.

At $3.6 million, Broadway Middle School may seem like a deal for the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District, desperately in need of gyms and classrooms, after a bond plan closer to $20 million was defeated last spring.

And the city of Gearhart is taking a hard look at the Gearhart Elementary School property, marketed by real estate agency Norris & Stevens at an asking price of $1.9 million.