The future of the Shoreline Historical Museum is uncertain but the Lake Forest Park City Council’s support for the museum is not. On July 9, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the importance of the museum to the community.
The council recently received letters from museum Board of Trustees president Henry Reed and vice president Bob Phelps asking to support the museum through a resolution.
The Shoreline School District owns the Ronald School building, where the museum has been located since 1976. Future plans for the building may include use as part of a new Shorewood High School and the museum could be evicted from the building. A final decision has not been reached by the Shoreline School District and Shoreline Historical Museum.
“This is a tremendous struggle,” Councilman Ed Sterner said. “The school district is first and foremost responsible for the quality education of the students in the school district and I personally think they should be able to figure out a way to achieve that without taking the museum out of that school.”
The solution isn’t simple, he added. The district could use the museum space in renovating Shorewood High School and a historical museum does not need to be located in a historical building.
“It’s kind of a neat thing but not necessary,” Sterner said. “We’re really asking the school board to consider the value of the museum and make sure they are fully weighing and considering that when they are making a very difficult decision.”
An amendment by Councilman Alan Kiest would have called for the school district to withdraw any plans to evict the museum from the Ronald School building.
“The motion as amended would ask the (school) board to step down from a hostile take over of the museum,” he said.
The amendment died 4-2 in favor of the original motion calling for an ongoing relationship between the Shoreline School District and the Shoreline Historical Museum board.
Lake Forest Park wants to maintain a relationship with both entities and could request help from the district in future attempts to secure surplus school property as parks, Councilman Don Fiene noted.
“I think we have to be very careful here as to what we’re expressing and how we’re expressing it,” he said.
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