When you’re forced to cut over two percent of your budget, some people are going to be angry. Most of the anger directed at the Bellingham School Board has been from the supporters of Lowell Elementary School.

District officials decided to keep the school closed for another year to save money, even though they have four million dollars they can tap in reserves. Lowell parents and others say they should use that money to open the school. But, the district is worried that the economy might not turn around by the time they need to write the next budget.

If conditions next year are exactly the same as this year, the district may need those reserves to avoid further cuts. The spending plan the district recently approved is partly funded by Federal Stimulus money that probably won’t be available next year.  How many stimulus dollars did the district receive? Four million. 

That could explain why the School Board decided to approve a 100 million dollar budget with a four percent reserve fund - four percent of 100 million is, you guessed it, four million.

I’m from Shelton, WA. I feel like I can say that with pride after the last couple of weekends. I normally don’t have many good things to say about my hometown. It’s a very small mill/logging town that has definitely seen better days. But, last weekend my family and I went down there to participate in a running race and visit family and we were quite impressed with what we saw.

After the race, we stayed downtown and watched the Forest Festival Parade. It was great - there were floats, bands, and other cool entries from all over the state. It was much better than the Ski to Sea Parade here in Bellingham. Later that night, there was a fireworks show that rivaled some big city Fourth Of July celebrations.

I don’t remember the Forest Festival being like that. When I lived there, the parade consisted of mostly logging trucks and there weren’t any fireworks. It seemed like Shelton was really trying to look good for at least that weekend.

I also felt great about my hometown the previous weekend when the first person who crossed the finish line and rang the bell in the Ski To Sea race was also a Shelton native. Jeff Hilburn is actually the son of former mayor Scott Hilburn. However, the political and athletic races aren’t even close to the most important wins for the family. 

When we were in Shelton, my wife attended a breast cancer fundraiser for an organization started by a breast cancer survivor - Jeff’s mother - Karen.  The Karen Hilburn Breast and Cervical Cancer Fund is available to Mason County women who are non-insured or under-insured for cancer treatment.

Yeah, I’m pretty proud to say I’m from Shelton.