The Oak Harbor Public Schools applied and were approved to receive two grants through the Washington State Department of Defense Community Compatibility Grant and the Department of Defense to rebuild Crescent Harbor Elementary and HomeConnection/Hand-in-Hand Early Learning Center.
Due to their locations on military installations, conditions and capacity limitations, these two schools were eligible to receive 80 percent of the funding from the Department of Defense to replace these two schools. The remaining 20 percent needed to be supported through local funding, such a school bond measure. After failing to secure the supermajority needed in the State of Washington to approve a school bond measure for the remaining 20 percent of the funding, district leadership submitted a state grant in an attempt to not lose out on approximately $100 million in federal funding to replace the two schools.
Through the strong advocacy and support of Senator Ron Muzzall, Legislative Representatives Dave Paul and Clyde Shavers, Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck and district leadership, Oak Harbor Public Schools was able to access more than $130 million in funding to support local students at no cost to local taxpayers.
The state funding comes from a grant submitted by Oak Harbor Public Schools through the State of Washington for the Defense Community Compatibility Account (DCCA). With the two schools on military installations and the available matching dollars from the Department of Defense, the schools were eligible for the grant funding, which totaled close to $30 million. Crescent Harbor Elementary and Hand-in-Hand Early Learning Center/HomeConnection are the only two schools in Oak Harbor eligible for these unique grants because of their location on military installations.
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