Response to School/Museum “Agreement in Principle

Response to School/Museum “Agreement in Principle”


Speaking for our Committee to Save Our Shoreline Historical Museum, we are pleased that the Historical Museum Board and School District have come to an “agreement in principle”. However the terms of this “Agreement in Principle” (which is very different from a “Legally Binding Agreement”) are unknown at this time. We expect to know more later today (Monday, Jan 25th).

After this Monday evening’s meeting of the Shoreline School Board at Shoreline Conference Center, 4:30pm in Board Room, which will vote on the agreement in principle, we presume that the legal details and underpinning, which is agreed to “in good faith” by the parties on behalf of their supporters and the taxpayers of the District will be forthcoming soon, and those details will clarify and ensure the long-term stability of both institutions.

We take no position at this time on the election questions and will leave the matters up to the voters. But we do express concern that these matters will be carried out with complete transparency and that the School District and Board will be completely accountable to the people, whatever the outcome of the vote.

We also have expressed concerns, which the District chose not to include the details of the ballot measures in the King County Voters Pamphlet and any statement justifying the proposed measures. We believe that the voters have a right to be fully informed about this expenditure of their tax dollars, and the details of this agreement should be widely publicized.

We trust that the agreement will include language that will protect the historical integrity and landmark status of the Shoreline Historical Museum and Ronald School Building, and ensure it’s place as a part of Shoreline’s Town Center as expressed clearly in our Community Vision process last year passed by the Shoreline City Council.

The District should have more transparently presented the process by which these measures were pursued, as well as the impacts placed upon the Museum and the community, to the voters, in our opinion. This issue of accountability is one that needs improvement for the sake of a better public process wise use of public funding.