By AMELIA HEAGERTY

Staff Writer

When it comes to raising money for schools, bake sales just don’t cut it these days, and seven years ago some innovative Island parents got together and planned something much more elaborate: an auction.

This year’s Vashon PTSA auction will elicit nostalgia in its attendees, according to organizers, with everything from the food to the decor taking auction-goers back to their childhoods. The May 3 auction, “Memories of Tomorrow: Celebrating Childhood,” will be held in K2 Commons.

The evening’s host — and auctioneer — will be Kevin Joyce, and Gretchen Neffenger will co-host. Imagine the inside of a 1950s diner, complete with neon and old records on the wall, bring in a vintage car, and you’ve got the fixings for this year’s auction.

Instead of quarters and dollar bills, auctions can raise tens of thousands of dollars in a single night. Last year, the event raked in $120,000, and after all auction expenses, bestowed $90,000 on the school district.

Auction chair Lauri Hennessey said this year organizers are hoping for $125,000.

And they’re well on their way, she said, having already raised $28,000 from Islanders and Island businesses. She said she expects the auction to cost $20,000, but is glad she will be able to tell auction attendees that every dollar they spend that night will go straight to the schools, not to defray the costs of the evening.

The vast majority of the money raised will go to curriculum, such as textbooks, Hennessey said.

The school has some books that date back several decades, and staff would be thrilled to update.

Stephen Floyd teaches drama and English at Vashon High School, and his junior English class’s copies of “The Great Gatsby” are paperbacks from 1980. Even more distressing, Hennessey said, the sophomore history books, “History of the World,” were published in 1985, before the Soviet Union had collapsed and East and West Germany were unified.

The ambitious fundraising effort comes at an important time for the district, which has faced mounting financial problems.

The district, acting Superintendent Terry Lindquist said at the end of last year, was “running on fumes.” He helped the district reduce its budget by nearly $300,000 to get back on track and even took a pay cut of $40,000 to help the district tighten its belt for the coming school year.

Hennessey said school district staff “I’m disappointed,” Turner added. “Once again, they backed down.”

The commissioners first told the department four years ago to charge fees for ambulance service, a program that never went into effect, despite the production of a color brochure explaining the new fee structure; Turner said then- Chief Jim Wilson, who opposed the effort, never got around to implementing it. The board again voted to launch such a system last November, this time giving the department until April 14 to contract with a firm to develop a billing system and work out any other issues.

According to the plan that briefly went into effect last week, Islanders were expected to pay $200 when an aid car took them to a health clinic on the Island and $450 if they were transported off-Island, costs the commissioners believe most insurance companies would cover.

The charges were for ambulance service that provides what’s called basic life support — or non-emergency transports. Advanced life support ambulance service is covered by Medic One.

But despite a six-month lead time, some issues remained unresolved as of last week, in part because of Vashon’s unique situation as an Island, the complexities of administering the new system and personnel changes that took place in the wake of former Fire Chief Keith Yamane’s departure.

Brett Kranjcevich, the department’s acting chief of operations, said VIFR administrators thought everything had been figured out four years ago, when the program was established but not implemented; it was only when he got more deeply involved in the process that he realized some critical questions — such as whether the Vashon Health Center and other clinics would be considered a “receiving institution” under Medicare regulations — had never been resolved, he said.

What’s more, several of those who work on the front lines at the fire department oppose the new fee system, in part because they fear it will result in some Islanders not calling for an aid car when they in fact should.

Steve Palmer, who heads Local 4189 of the International Association of Firefighters, which represents Vashon’s firefighters, said there are several Islanders who call when they’re not critically ill but need assistance to get to the Vashon Health Center. They dial 911, he added, because that’s what the health center instructs them to do. Some might turn to the fire department for help five or six times a year.

If Medicare doesn’t cover such expenses — it’s not clear yet if Medicare will or won’t — those Islanders could end up with $1,200 in bills by the end of the year, Palmer said.

“We’re concerned that they’ll be a lot less likely to call 911 if they have a stack of bills from the fire department on their kitchen table,” Palmer said. “The union’s main concern is for people’s health and safety.”

The union did not present an official position of opposition to the new fee structure, he said, because it appeared the decision was irrevocable. But Tuesday night, when he realized some issues were still unresolved — would the department send a bill, for instance, even if administrators knew insurance would not cover the costs — Palmer, representing the union, asked for some clarifications. That, in turn, ultimately led Philip — who joined the board in January — to make a motion to suspend the service until some of these questions can be resolved.

“It’s been four years,” said Philip. “What’s a couple more weeks?”

But Palmer said he and other firefighters hope the temporary suspension becomes permanent.

“I believe there’s a lot of support now for discontinuing the process,” he said.