Bond on its way to approval
March 18, 2009
By Laura Geggel
With a majority of 67 percent, Snoqualmie Valley voters appear to have approved a $27.5 million school bond.
A total of 6,170 voters approved the bond, while 3,036 had voted against it. The ballot was all-mail, with March 10 set as the final day for ballots to be postmarked. Results for the all mail-in ballot will not be final until March 25.
A crowd of district employees, Valley Voters for Education volunteers, school board members and community voters convened at the Woodman Lodge Restaurant in Snoqualmie on the eve of the voting deadline, anxious to see the results. The vote count had already passed the threshold of 7,254, the number of ballots needed to validate the election.
This sign outside the North Bend Theater reminded people in the Valley to vote on a March 10 school bond proposition, which appears to have passed.
After three failed bonds since 2007, all of which lost by less than three percent, the group was anxious to see the results. They loaded the King County elections Web site and waited for the posting.
“It was pretty exciting,” VVFE volunteer Jim Reitz said. “We were hitting refresh once a second until they posted the numbers.”
VVFE President Geoffrey Doy and his wife also went to the lodge.
“We had a baby sitter that night who is at the high school,” Doy said. “Before we left, she said, ‘It’s got to pass, it’s going to make such a big difference to us at the high school.’”
The bond not only passed, it turned out 1,518 more voters than the March 2008 election.
The bond will fund $22.1 million in repairs to school property across the district.
In addition to receiving maintenance repairs, Mount Si will receive $3.6 million for 12 new portables, which may be turned into a ninth-grade academy. The academy will have men’s and women’s restrooms, a covered walkway from the main building and will be elevated to avoid flooding.
Because the portables will be placed where the tennis courts are stationed, the bond will provide $1.8 million to move the six courts across Meadowbrook Way.
With money for a new heating and ventilation system, Mount Si will also be able to complete its idea for a second commons, allowing students more places to eat and another hallway to travel through to class. If the bond did not pass, the school would not have been able to create the second commons because the current heating system would not support it.
The portables should be ready at the beginning of the 2009-10 school year, while the second commons is slated for completion in January 2010, said Clint Marsh, construction program manager for the school district. The repairs to the other schools will happen over the summer and coming school year.
“Parents who have kids in the high school or who will be going into the high school next year should be very optimistic,” said superintendent Joel Aune, who credited several factors for the bond’s success.
After the third bond failed in March 2008, the school board decided to scale down the bond to the bare essentials. While the previous bonds had numbered $209.2 million and later $189.6 million, this bond cost much less at $27.5 million.
“Scaling it down to a much smaller number appears to be well-received by the community,” Aune said.
In addition, an older school bond that expired in 2008 allowed for a $0.58 decrease in 2009 school tax rates. Even with the new bond, the tax rate will be $0.19 less than the previous year. With a faltering economy, the smaller bond and tax rate may have appealed to taxpayers.
VVFE also made 4,400 calls to voters, sent students home with stickers to remind their parents to vote and mailed 16,000 information sheets to Valley residents.
“The VVFE team did a good job, but we couldn’t have done it without massive support,” Doy said.
While many district staff and community members are ecstatic about the passing of the bond, it is only the first step of many to address overcrowding at the elementary and high school level.
“I think many people recognize that this is a transitional plan for looking at how to address the enrollment at MSHS in the short-term,” Mount Si Principal Randy Taylor said. “The long-term still remains to be decided.”
Taylor and Mount Si administrators will visit other high schools with ninth-grade programs, before deciding how to implement the academy at Mount Si.
Still, Aune congratulated the district on passing the bond at all.
“When you look at bond propositions, typically those are tough. It’s a challenge to get a bond to 60 percent passing,” Superintendent Joel Aune said.
Snoqualmie Valley was the only district in Western Washington that passed a bond. Seven districts ran bonds in February, but only one passed. In March, half of the 14 bonds passed, with Snoqualmie Valley being the only district west of the Cascade Mountains with more than 60 percent approval ratings.
“I’m really excited about the bond passing especially in a climate where so many other school bonds went down,” Taylor said. “It a good comment on the campaign and also the commitment of the community to keep our schools in good functioning order.”
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434, ext. 221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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