BY PEPPER FISHER
Sequim – The Sequim School District’s effort to build a $16.5 million Career Technical Education (CTE) Center received the first half of a one million dollar gift on Thursday from Sequim resident Mary Laura Ramponi.
School Superintendent Regan Nickels joined the members of the Sequim Masonic Lodge Thursday to talk about the CTE Center, pitch the district’s need for an upcoming bond request, and to personally be handed a check for $500,000 from Ramponi. Ramponi’s husband, the late Lou Ramponi, became a member of the Sequim Masonic Lodge after the couple moved to Sequim in 2000.
Mary Laura said Lou did not have a college education, but opened a television store and repair shop in California where they both worked for over 30 years.
“Husband never graduated. And so, you know, we made our money just living off the land, per se. I learned how to invest well.”
Ramponi learned along the way that an expensive college education is not necessarily everyone’s best path to success, and that played into her decision to support the school district’s CTE program.
“Number one, I have a surrogate son that has a degree in psychology and he’s out putting up those wind machines. All of this education and he’s still doing manual labor. And I think we need to educate young’uns more now into, you know, “You don’t need a big education to go change a tire, or be a plumber or something.” And, too many kids just think academic and not trades.”
The district has received a $4.99 million Washington State funded grant to build the 20,000 square foot steel building, which will be a training center for skilled trades and to prepare interested students to enter the workforce in local industries.
School Superintendent Regan Nickels told KONP Ramponi’s donation will start working for the district right away.
“The grant that we received from the state is a reimbursable grant. So, Mrs. Ramponi’s donation will allow us to get underway with the costs of design, development, site evaluation, and then we can apply for the reimbursement from the state once those services have been initially paid for.”
Mary Laura says she’s glad to see that it’s not just the boys who are interested in learning how to work with their hands.
“The eighth grade girls have a carpentry class, and they built a shed, and it’s beautiful. And here’s, you know, girls pounding nails. And you don’t see that To much. Everybody’s, “You got to go to school, you got to be a secretary, you got to do this.” But, there are other things in life to do.”