ELY – Emergency equipment access, handicapped vehicle parking, student safety, and audience attendance at community events at the Washington School Auditorium have always caused a bottleneck of sorts at the circle driveway onto school property.

Ely Fire Chief Tom Erchull urged School Board members Monday night to take a serious look at the recipe for disaster and to resolve the problem. His concerns were heightened following a recent meeting with the federal Homeland Security Agency.

“The way things are now really hampers emergency response into that area, whether it is fire or medical (needs) or anything else when you can’t get equipment through,” he said.

Lack of proper signage, worn curb painting or missing curbs have made the circle drive a free-for-all for parking after school hours, specially during community events in the auditorium.

School Board members themselves were confused and disagreed about the current parking policy and what kind of parking is allowed along the inner portion and/or outer portion of the circle drive.

“If we had to get in there with a large apparatus, it would be almost impossible to do at times,” Erchull said.

He described the difficulty of access for an emergency vehicle last summer during a Community Choir rehearsal. “With cars parked on both sides, they could barely get the ambulance through there,” he said.

Police Chief John Lahtonen mirrored the fire chief’s concerns with the parking situation. “Whatever the (school) board decides to do, I would think the first thing would be to install an adequate number of signs,” Lahtonen said.

He stressed that once a fire lane is designated, like right in front of the building, even school busses would be prohibited from using that area for merely student loading and unloading. “You can’t pick and choose how it is designated,” he said. “Either it’s a fire lane or it’s not a fire lane.”

Erchull said some areas of the circle drive, like in front of the fire hydrants, are marked red, but the signs have been knocked down or removed entirely. “It looks like some of the curbing has been replaced and not repainted,” he said.

School Board member Scott Kellerman suggested designating the entire area as a “no parking” area.

Erchull said that in the event of a fire in the auditorium full of people, the absence of vehicles in the circle drive would allow for a safer exit for everyone.

Lahtonen stressed the need for access for vehicles designated for handicapped parking. “We have a community that’s kind of old, and they want to attend concerts and graduations,” he said. “I want this board to understand the ramifications. It is not going to be a very popular decision.”

Board members agreed they did not want to eliminate the handicapped parking access within the circle drive. “I understand the fire (vehicle) concerns, but I also have grave concerns about not having handicapped individuals get access to the door,” said board member Rochelle Sjoberg. “It is a significantly long walk from the street outside of the horseshoe.”

Erchull seemed to agree that allowing handicapped parking on the inside of the circle while having the entire outside of circle as a designated fire lane would work better than the current situation. “I’m not sure what the best solution is,” he said.

The demolition of the former JFK school building, set for completion this summer, will allow for planning a new playground and parking lot in the near future.

School Board members will discuss possible changes to traffic flow, emergency vehicle access, handicapped parking area and school bus loading and unloading area at their facilities committee meeting and building walk-thru, which will be held on Tuesday, June 14 at 6 p.m.

Foreign languages

With the upcoming retirement of longtime German language teacher Robert Braff, the School Board is studying the entire foreign language program at ISD 696 and deciding how to move forward with offering a variety of learning opportunities for students.

The vacant fulltime position was posted last week. A shared teaching arrangement will continue with Northeast Range High School in nearby Babbitt.

Superintendent Kevin Abrahamson said Monday; “I had a conversation with a German teacher who would love to come here. There is interest.” He said he heard from at least two other possible teacher candidates before the job was posted.

Interim 6-12 principal Megan Anderson indicated she spoke with a teacher interested in coming to Ely to teach German.

Anderson said 48 Ely students in grades 9-12 are signed up to take one of the four levels of German next year, and 43 students are scheduled to take one of the three levels of Spanish language classes. “That is 91 out of 170 students in our high school in our foreign language program,” she said. “It is great to see those numbers.”

Most four-year colleges now require at least two consecutive years of a foreign language to qualify for entry at the freshman level.

Anderson said students who can’t fit the class into their schedule have the option of taking online foreign language learning. “Some students just have too many classes and have trouble making them all fit,” she said.

The German language teacher opening is posted to include three hours of instruction in Ely in the morning and two hours of instruction in Babbitt. “We are very fortunate to have Northeast Range work with us to provide a full-time position between the two schools,” Anderson said.

Abrahamson said that future foreign language offerings would continue to be based on the number of students interested. “It is incumbent to keep the numbers where the are, and if they are not we have to decide where we are going and also to provide for those students who have already started,” he said. “It does them no good to take just one year of German and one year of Spanish when most colleges require two consecutive years of the same foreign language.”