Commissioners overseeing the Vashon Park District last Tuesday unanimously approved a new agreement with the school district that governs public use of school facilities.

All five park board members voted in favor of the five-year agreement, which lowers the park district’s annual payment to the school district — meant to help cover maintenance costs incurred from community recreation groups — from $100,000 to $50,000. After two years, the annual payment will increase to $75,000 — a figure agreed upon last month by members of both boards.

The motion to approve the agreement was introduced, and the board voted in the same meeting. The rule requiring a one-meeting delay between the introduction of the motion and a vote was suspended by a 4-1 board vote. Commissioner Lu-Ann Branch objected.

But getting the unanimous vote on the agreement last week did not come easily. Initially, Branch took issue with the new agreement and asked why the park district is still making annual payments to the school district.

When negotiations over the so-called Commons Agreement first began in the spring, park board chair Karen Gardner and commissioner Bob McMahon believed there should be no annual payment to the school district. They searched and could not find another agreement anywhere in the state in which money changed hands between park and school districts.

“We came from paying them nothing,” Branch said. “How did we end up with $75,000 … for operating costs?”

Gardner said while she still “objects philosophically” to the payment part of the agreement, it came down to a desire to work together and get a park district bond passed.

“Bob (McMahon) and I realized that we would like their (the school district’s) support for our bond, and they’ve been fairly forthcoming that they would be very supportive of our bond,” she said. “If we don’t pay them anything, my suspicion is bad things would happen.”

However, in a Friday interview, school board and Commons Committee member Bob Hennessey said he took offense to Gardner’s statement and said the two issues — Commons Agreement and bond — are separate.

“There was never any quid pro quo there,” he said.

Gardner then explained that once the park district and school district facilities managers and staff came together in late June to compare the amount of public use and costs of maintaining school facilities, agreement was reached. The school board’s numbers were originally inflated and included the park district paying for full utility bills, while the park district’s numbers reasoned utilities — water, power, etc. — would be running regardless of whether the public was using facilities or not.

“We came together to do this, and that’s rare,” Gardner said.

Then, park board members raised questions about accountability and ensuring the school district was using the annual payment for maintenance. The agreement was accepted with an amendment stating the two boards will meet annually to discuss maintenance costs and ensure the payments are still an accurate reflection of costs to the school district.

“This agreement shouldn’t be held up because of language around accountability,” park board member Scott Harvey said before introducing the motion to approve the new document.

But Harvey’s motion quickly became convoluted and caused frustration with Mary Reeves, the woman taking down the meeting’s minutes. Harvey eventually took over her computer to write the motion in his words, and she announced she was resigning. Vashon Park District Executive Director Elaine Ott-Rocheford confirmed that Reeves is considering vacating the position.

The school board now needs to approve the agreement. It will meet on Thursday, July 27, three days before the current agreement is set to expire. Hennessey is confident the board will vote in favor of the new proposal and said that even without the agreement officially ratified, both entities will “act as if it is in place.”

“We have advanced the Commons because we now have, for the first time, a baseline of costs for recreational users beyond school district use,” he said.

Other topics discussed at last Tuesday’s park board meeting included Fern Cove’s lack of septic system and work underway to remedy the issue. The park district received a grant from 4Culture, King County’s historical preservation agency, to cover the cost of an engineering design for the system. That should be completed in coming weeks, and the estimated $35,000 fix will get underway later this year.

The Vashon Pool’s drain also needs to be fixed after an engineering report last year found it was not in compliance with the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool &Spa Safety Act. The district’s insurance company is covering the nearly $80,000 fix, and work is slated to begin once the pool closes for the season in the fall.