14th District lawmakers plan Dec. 30 news conference
to discuss future of Yakima Valley School

December 23. 2008

OLYMPIA… Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, Rep. Charles Ross and Rep.-elect Norm Johnson will have a news conference at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 30, to discuss the future of the Yakima Valley School Residential Habilitation Center, which this year marked a half-century of service to Washingtonians with developmental disabilities. 

The news conference will be in the lobby of Yakima Valley School, 609 Speyers Road, Selah (click here for map). The 14^th District lawmakers have invited their colleagues from the 13^th and 15^th legislative districts, which also serve the Yakima Valley, to participate. 

Gov. Christine Gregoire’s proposed budget for 2009-11 pulls funding for operation of the school and would result in its closure by June 2011. King, Ross and Johnson will explain why Yakima Valley School should have higher priority for funding and how that funding may continue without tax increases. They also discuss the level of cost savings associated with closing the school and how its closure would affect the school’s 88 residents, their families, nearly 300 employees, and the surrounding communities. 

Yakima Valley School is one of five Residential Habilitation Centers operated by the state. In 1994 it was designated a Nursing Facility, and provides a full spectrum of clinical and therapeutic programs plus planned respite services.

For more information contact Eric Campbell
at (360) 786-7503 or campbell.eric@leg.wa.gov.