The district’s grounds crew is developing a plan to improve landscaping around Anacortes High School, following some recent changes in how the grounds are managed. 

Community members have raised concerns about the state of the grounds, and the district takes these concerns seriously. Our team is currently working on ways to make improvements to ensure that the landscaping is more manageable to maintain in the future.

A lot of landscaping was added during the construction of the high school and a large portion of it is very labor intensive to maintain. During the first year, the flower beds were maintained by the contractor in accordance with the original contract and warranty. The cost of continuing this contract for grounds maintenance at the high school was prohibitive financially. While we have greatly appreciated the volunteers that have helped do some weeding, we know that volunteers are not a regular or long-term solution.

The two-man grounds crew has not been able to keep up with all of the newly added landscaping in addition to maintaining the other five school grounds. The district has 60 acres of land to maintain. Based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics an acceptable level would be one staff per 20 acres. Unfortunately, due to a tight budget this year and budget reductions next year, we will not be able to add any new employees to this crew. This greatly impacts our ability to maintain our grounds district-wide to an "acceptable level.” 

Our grounds department desires to have grounds our community can be proud of. The grounds crews are developing an action plan to maintain the grounds both in the short and long-term. 

Questions? Mike Sullivan, Executive Director of Finance & Operations (360) 503-1213 or masullivan@asd103.org