Ridgefield resident Heidi Pozzo shares her thoughts on funding for needed band room acoustic upgrades at Ridgefield High School

Heidi Pozzo 
for Clark County Today 

In its week in review newsletter for March 29, 2024, the Ridgefield School District shared a video explaining why the band room acoustic upgrades are needed. Noise levels have reached the point where they are in the hearing loss range.  

That’s a problem. 

If you have ever worked in an industrial setting, there are a variety of safety issues that need to be addressed to comply with OSHA regulations. Noise issues are one of them.  

Safety issues should not require a bond to fix them. Especially when the cost is $200,000. 

It could be that the time in the room is not sufficient to have a technical OSHA violation. And usually hearing protection is the remedy. But earplugs are probably not the desired remedy when teaching or taking band class. 

This situation should be addressed now from operational funds. 

Safety is not something that should be trifled with. When you work in industrial settings, you’ll come across people that have lost digits and limbs, as well as some with hearing loss. And you may have the unfortunate situation of knowing someone who was killed in an industrial accident as I have. 

With the desire to provide pathways for different careers, there should also be training on what good safety programs look like and how to spot employers that do well on that front and those that do not. 

It’s easy to see when you know what to look for.  

What sort of message does it send to the students, staff and community that Ridgefield School District doesn’t take the safety of those in the band room seriously to address a known issue unless a bond proposition passes? 

Heidi Pozzo has been a Ridgefield resident for 16 years. She is a concerned citizen who would like students to get a good education and thinks we can do it in a more cost-effective way.

---

Also read:

• 
  Opinion: President Trump signs memorandum to protect the Snake River dams
  Todd Myers argues that President Trump’s new memorandum rescinding Biden-era policies is a positive step toward protecting the Snake River dams, energy reliability, and salmon recovery.
• 
  Opinion: Why would C-TRAN Board members put the agency on the hook for $7.2 million annually if they don’t have to?
  Ken Vance questions why C-TRAN Board members would commit the agency to $7.2 million in annual light rail costs when the IBR administrator says alternative funding is possible.
• 
  POLL: Is the IBR team listening to SW Washington?
  A new poll invites Clark County residents to weigh in on whether local taxpayers should be responsible for the cost of light rail operations in the I-5 Bridge Replacement Program.
• 
  Opinion: How to use a two-way left turn lane
  Doug Dahl explains the legal and safety reasoning behind using two-way left turn lanes for both entering and exiting traffic.
• 
  Opinion: Washington’s CO2 tax jumps 16% in just three months to about 46 cents per gallon
  In an opinion column, Todd Myers of the Washington Policy Center argues that Washington’s carbon-tax price rose 16 percent last quarter to the equivalent of about 46 cents per gallon of gasoline, yet provides little measurable climate benefit.