SEQUIM — The Police Department will have to keep searching for a more spacious home.
In a special public hearing Monday night, the Sequim School District Board of Directors voted to reject a proposal that would have moved the police station into the Community School at 220 W. Alder St.
The board’s vote was unanimous, except June Robinson’s abstention, which she didn’t explain.
The majority of the speakers who addressed the School Board on Monday were concerned about “the need to protect kids,” said board chairwoman Sarah Bedinger.
The police station would have been near Head Start, the district’s alternative high school and other programs for children and teens.
Police Chief Robert Spinks presented the proposal Monday night and explained that his department is in dire need of more space.
The police station has been housed in a 5,300-square-foot space in the strip mall near J.C. Penney Co. Inc. at 609 W. Washington St., and could have had almost enough room had it relocated to the 11,000-square-foot east wing of the Community School.
Opponents of that move nonetheless thought that it’s “not in the school district’s jurisdiction to solve that problem,” Bedinger said.