Senior project collects more than 5000 tires for recycling
OROVILLE – The Oroville School Board heard that enrollment had dropped by 11 FTEs between the semesters within the district.
“We are starting budget work for the 2015-16 school year. We usually see a drop off between the semesters and we lost 11 students between February and March,” said Business Manager Shay Shaw in her financial report.
The state pays the district basic education funds based on student population – FTEs, Full Time Equivalents. In the past the board has taken a conservative view and set the yearly budget based on numbers that are lower than the expected FTEs for the next school year.
“Looks like we will be budgeting at the same level as last year, or at a little more,” Shaw said.
The Monday, March 30 meeting began with “Good News and Announcements.” Among the good news shared by High School Principal Kristin Sarmiento was that the board would be signing a diploma for a student who had been a few credits short of the graduation requirements and had made them up. It was also announced that Superintendent Steve Quick was out of town to visit his first grandchild, a baby girl. Board Member Amy Wise reported that the Oroville Scholarship Foundation’s talent show was well attended.
Just a few of the more than 5000 used scrap tires were collected in a tire recycling event held by two Oroville senior students working on their senior project. Gary DeVon/staff photo
Tire Collection Event
Teacher Tam Hutchinson gave a report on the recent tire recycling event organized by two senior students, Steven Maupin and Trevor Shear, for their senior project. He first showed a PowerPoint slideshow, created by student Hunter DeVon, on how many used tires are generated each year in the state.
“There are 10 billion scrap tires generated globally. Each person generates about one scrap tire per year, there are 7 million generated in Washington alone,” said Hutchinson.
“They are waste and a health and fire hazards. Each tire can harbor mosquitos, snakes and other vermin,” he said. “Every tire is a potential breeding ground for up to 100,000 mosquitos.”
The Oroville tire collection event collected over 5000 tires in two days and filled eleven 28-foot trailers, with each trailer holding about 550 tires, according to Hutchinson. The tires will be transported to Portland, Ore where they will be used as fuel to make cement.
“They burn really hot and the plant uses modern technics to clean up the emissions to EPA standards,” said Hutchinson. “But first, each tire’s sidewall is inspected to see if it can be reused for a retread.”
Manufacturing a new tire takes 22 gallons of oil, while making a retread reduces that number to seven gallons, according to Hutchinson.
In addition to the two seniors, there were several students who volunteered to help with the collection. The event was set up by the Okanogan County Health District, with funding from the state Department of Ecology. Oak Harbor Trucking, which transported the tires, had allocated four trailers to the event, but since it was such a success they increased it to 10 trailers, according to Hutchinson.
Consent Agenda
After approving changes to district policies, the board moved on to new business. They approved a consent agenda of several items, including accepting donations from the Oroville Booster Club – $652 for wrestling singlets, $2000 for State FBLA registration fes and $1049 for a tennis ball machine. They also approved John Ragsdale as the director for Sixth Grade Camp, with assistance from Ila Hall and Mary Willey. Two overnight trips were approved for this month, one for FBLA to Spokane and one for Upward Bound to Seattle.
The following were approved as coaches, Even Miranda, high school assistant boys soccer coach; Noah Burnell as high school assistant tennis coach; Justin McGarvin as junior varsity track volunteer; Daniel McKinney as high school baseball volunteer and Jose Quenzada as boys soccer volunteer.
