The machine is valued at about $4,000, and if it were new would be worth about $6,000. This espresso machine, which resides in Ohlsen’s office, has been used for a few purposes besides fundraising at football games throughout this school year.
“The booster club used it at football games to raise money for co-curricular activities, ASB has used it for InterHigh, Ms.Powell used it for one of her classes, and the staff uses it- we often bring it out on early release days,” said Principal Susan Hanson.
Recently, this coffee machine was in need of some repairs. VCC provided VHS with a “loaner” machine during the repair time. However, it turned out, according to Ohlsen that the repairs cost significantly more than anticipated, so, he and Hanson had to make a choice.
“Since the repairs were more than they anticipated, Vashon Coffee Company provided us with the choice of either declining the donation offer, or accepting the offer in exchange for us paying for the parts that were replaced. We decided to accept the offer, and $400 was paid for the parts,” wrote Ohlsen in an e-mail to the staff regarding the money spent on the repairs for the machine.
Ohlsen’s e-mail also echoes statements made by Hanson that firmly assert that no co-curricular, building budget or district funds were used to pay for the repairs. The money used for the coffee machine repairs came out of our school’s “Self-Help fund”. This fund is made up of gifts and money that comes from “corporate promotions”.
Despite trying to clarify this issue for the staff, Ohlsen ended up having to write a second e-mail stating that the amount of money needed for the repairs was actually $800.00, as pointed out to him by office manager Maggie Albertson.
“…$400 was budgeted out of this year’s Self-Help fund and $400 was budgeted out of next year’s Self-Help fund,” said Ohlsen in his correction e-mail.
The Self-Help fund, which is used at the discretion of the principal, typically pays for a variety of purposes, including new textbooks.
“[The Self Help fund] is a small fund that is made up of gifts and is used at the principal’s discretion. I have used it for assemblies, for subs when teachers go on a field trip and forget to budget for a sub, for textbooks when there’s not enough money in the budget for them, and for the free cookies that we give out sometimes,” said Hanson.
It may appear that the VCC was trying to rescind their offer, however, that is not the case at all. Loraas said that she thought that there was a miscommunication between her and the school back when she first donated the machine, and she is very concerned about not creating any “ill-will” between the VCC and VHS, and certainly does not want VHS to concur any unnecessary expenses, nor does she want the machine back.
“I originally thought [the coffee machine] was for football games for a season, then it started being used for the staff…when I talked to Mr.Ohlsen I told him it was an expensive donation. We are a small, new company. In the beginning, it was just for football games then suddenly it was forever,” she said.
In regard to Ohlsen’s statement to the staff that the school would have to pay for the parts for the repairs or else give the machine back, Loraas said that she never forced VHS to pay anything and does not want the machine back, although she would take it back if VHS really did not want it.
Government teacher Cindy Powell, who used the coffee machine once to make lattes for her A.P. government classes to celebrate finishing the A.P. government test at the beginning of May, has mixed feelings about the issue at hand.
“It was probably well intentioned at the base. [The coffee machine] was originally donated, and the donation was generous and it was good for fundraisers. I only used it once, and that was to celebrate ‘mission accomplished’ after the A.P. test.
I think it was a nice gift that went on the fritz, this fund was used to fix it, and that was the problem. If there was no budget crunch right now, I don’t think it would be an issue,” she said.
Powell also referred to the whole situation surrounding the repairs and the money needed to make them as an “expensive mistake”. Hanson also said that in retrospect and in light of the recent budget crisis the school district is in right now, the decision to fix the machine and pay the $800 for the repairs was perhaps not the best one.
“The two of us [she and Ohlsen] together with the Key Club advisor [Albertson] met and discussed whether it would be a good use of money, and whether [the machine] would recoup itself with Booster Club sales. At the time it seemed like a really good use of money, so it’s frustrating when people are yelling and screaming ‘You spent $800 on a coffee machine when we’re in this budget crunch?’ because we weren’t aware of the budget crunch at the time. Today, if the offer was made, we would have said ‘No thank you’,” she said when asked about the process behind the decision to use the Self-Help fund to fix the coffee machine.
Even in the wake of all the budget issues plaguing the school district, keeping and repairing the coffee machine may not seem like a big deal, seeing as its primary purpose was fundraising. However, according to Hanson, the coffee machine has not raised very much money at all. According to Albertson, the machine was used at every home football game with the exception of the second half of one game. Hanson added that coffee from the machine can’t be sold at lunch because of rules regulating competition with the school lunch service, but if a club wanted to use the machine for fundraising, it would be possible if they stayed a certain number of feet away from the lunch counters.
A final point that Hanson made was about the supplies used to make coffee in the infamous machine. She said that Ohlsen buys all of the coffee-making supplies himself though $27.00 of district money was spent on milk for one staff meeting.
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