Port Angeles Board Won't Approve Minutes of Censure Meeting; Public Record Delayed to August

The Port Angeles School District Board of Directors declined on Thursday, July 23, to approve the minutes of its June 18 meeting, the session at which it voted 4-1 to censure Director Nancy Hamilton.

The vote keeps the official written record of that night out of public view for at least three more weeks.

Minutes entered in BoardDocs do not become visible to the public until the board approves them, executive assistant Casey McDonald told directors.

Hamilton emailed the board a formal objection that afternoon, and Board President Sandy Long asked her to read it aloud.

Citing her duties under RCW 28A.150.230, Hamilton wrote that the official video shows the draft contains "material omissions, chronological reversals, and factual inaccuracies."

She raised four points. The draft credits Long with calling a five-minute recess over audience outbursts; Hamilton contends Superintendent Michelle Olsen declared it, and that a board employee cannot recess a meeting of elected officials. 

It records vote counts on her motions to postpone the censure and the superintendent's contract; she contends both died for lack of a second.

She also contends the recesses ran far longer than recorded and that the draft omits that a board majority left the public floor for an enclosed room. 

Her fourth point asks that the record show the audience outcry followed her motion to postpone the censure indefinitely, and responded to how the board handled it.

Directors did not debate the substance and adopted none of her proposed corrections. One said the document contained points of disagreement and asked how the review would work.

On McDonald's guidance, the board first voted not to approve the minutes, then passed a second motion postponing approval to Aug. 13 for further review.

Nothing else on the roughly three-hour agenda addressed the censure or Hamilton's July 14 lawsuit against the district and board. No executive session was held.

Five weeks after censuring her, the board named Hamilton its 2026-27 legislative representative on a voice vote.

A shortfall that keeps growing

At the 6:30 p.m. budget hearing, Olsen said the gap the district identified in April, roughly $1.9 million, has widened to about $2.3 million.

She listed the additions: a Title I allocation about $79,000 below projection, an insurance increase projected at $180,000 that a May 15 email said would instead double to $360,000, and an unfunded state mandate under the Washington Clean Buildings Performance Standard.

About an hour before the meeting, Director of Finance and Operations Greg Geyer brought her another. Clallam County reported an error involving property in the district's taxing area that Geyer said will cost $152,000 in local property tax revenue this month.

Director Ned Hammar put the running total of surprises since May 15 near $630,000. He also noted that the state's prototypical funding model covers about 10 paraeducators while the district employs roughly 130.

The proposed budget projects general fund revenue of $64,376,849 against $64,524,851 in expenditures, about $148,000 short. Roughly 85% of general fund spending goes to staffing, and it assumes 135 fewer full-time equivalent students than last year's budget.

Olsen said the district's OSPI financial profile score rose from 1.9 to 2.6 out of 4 and its state audit came back clean.

Directors also approved Resolution 2627-01, a delegation resolution clearing the way to sell the remaining $110 million of the district's voter-approved bonds. Olsen said the sale is planned for around October.

The board is scheduled to adopt the budget on Aug. 13.