Following boardmember Mike Mahon’s briefing, the Wallowa School Board expressed interest in seriously pursuing the concept of biomass heating for the school at the regular board meeting on Monday evening.

Following Mahon’s report on the results of his recent investigations into the feasibility of a biomass system, the board moved to pursue preliminary inquiries into the operations and mechanical end of such a system, either in concert with Nils Christoffersen of the Enterprise School Board, who is examining a project along similar lines of inquiry for his school district, or on its own.

One school in Darby, Mont., with which Mahon had been in contact, had reportedly saved $60,000 in heating costs during its second year of biomass heating operation. “These things work,” Mahon stated. The school could be heated effectively on 10 or 15 truckloads of chips a year, he estimated. Mahon was also confident funding could be found for the project, especially after the passage of the new energy bill, in which are earmarked some federal monies for alternative energy development.

“I think there’s a lot of dollars out there for stuff like this,” he said. Mahon will report back to the board in a month with an initial suggested plan and specifics about systems.

AYP met at WallowaWallowa, like Enterprise, passed its No Child Left Behind (NCLB) marks, putting it in the lucky 28 percent of schools statewide to do so. Superintendent John Nesemann extended a cautionary allegory, though.

“It’s like baseball,” he said. “By 2013 it’s as though everyone is going to be batting .285. As a fan you know that’s not going to happen … but the federal government does things differently.”

With the biannual increase in target percentages for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) numbers under NCLB guidelines, “It’s only a matter of time. Every high school is going to get dinged,” Nesemann said.

He also pointed out other potential NCLB problems on the horizon: the concept of the Highly Qualified Teacher (HQT) rating, which demands that any teacher instructing in more than one subject be credentialed in each, even in small multi-grade towns like Troy. Nesemann did say he believed “the feds would blink” on the issue, “but only at the last minute.”