Two school boards to meet tonight

The Grand Coulee Dam and Nespelem school districts’ boards of directors will hold a joint meeting tonight (Wednesday) at 6 p.m. at La Presa Restaurant in Grand Coulee to discuss items of mutual interest. The meeting is open to the public.

Coulee Dam Superintendent Paul Turner will brief the two boards on what he learned while he was at the recent NAFIS (impact aid) conference in Washington D.C.

Turner said he was concerned that President Donald Trump’s budget proposal to Congress shows a 13-percent decline in school funding. Turner said it wasn’t popular among lawmakers that he talked with last week.

The two school boards will discuss the two-year school calendar that Turner had presented to his board whose members didn’t want to approve it until the calendars could be discussed with Nespelem board members.

Turner also said he wanted to ask Nespelem if its board wanted to put a plaque on the stone in front of the Coulee Dam school showing that the Nespelem Savages had been one of the school mascots preceding the Lake Roosevelt Raiders. Grand Coulee Tigers and Coulee Dam Beaver alumni groups have both done so.

The Grand Coulee Dam board also plans on holding an executive (closed) session at the conclusion of the joint meeting to discuss personnel issues.