Snoqualmie Valley School District inching closer to 60-percent mark
February 11, 2011
UPDATED — 4:23 p.m., Feb. 14
The bond proposal to build a middle school on Snoqualmie Ridge stood on the verge of a comeback win when new results were released Tuesday afternoon by King County Elections. The bond measure had 59.78 percent of the vote, just shy of the 60 percent needed to pass.
The other item on the Feb. 8 ballot — a bond measure for a new fire station in North Bend — was passing.
Katie Gilliam, with the King County Elections office said that the amount of ballots coming in would plummet after Feb. 9.
Gilliam said she expected a 38 percent countywide voter turnout but offered no “hard-and-fast” figures for voter turnout in the Valley.
Activist warns of school district ‘scare tactics’ on bond
February 2, 2011
David Spring, pictured with his daughter, says Snoqualmie Valley School District is using “scare tactics” to garner support for the bond measure on ballots for the Feb. 8 election. (Contributed)
Activist David Spring said the Snoqualmie Valley School District wants to scare people into voting for the bond by promising to create a ninth-grade annex at a middle school.
The annex, Spring said, belongs to a larger plan to turn Mount Si High School into a “megaschool.”
District authorities have said Snoqualmie Middle School will become a ninth-grade branch of Mount Si High regardless of the result of the Feb. 8 bond proposal to build a new middle school.
Spring, a former candidate for the state Legislature, said the district won’t create a ninth-graders’ annex.
“I don’t think that will happen,” he said. “If they did that, it could leave 20-plus classrooms empty at Mount Si High School and the public won’t stand for that.”
Snoqualmie Valley Schools Superintendent Joel Aune issued a statement through public information coordinator Carolyn Malcolm refuting Spring’s accusations, defending the district’s data and insisting the district is committed to annexing Snoqualmie Middle School.
Snoqualmie Valley taxpayers to get a break from refinanced bonds
September 2, 2010
NEW — 6:00 a.m. Sept. 2, 2010
Snoqualmie Valley taxpayers will pay less each year on school bond repayments until 2020.
The Valley’s school board and Jon Gores, the school district’s financial advisor, made the announcement at the Aug. 19 school board meeting.
District prepares to sell bonds
March 25, 2009
Now that voters have approved a $27.5 million school bond by 67 percent, the Snoqualmie Valley School District is beginning the behind-the-scenes work of selling its bonds.
At a March 12 school board meeting, Jon Gores of D.A. Davidson & Co. described the bond-selling process.
“The next time you see my smiling face, the bonds will have been committed to by investors,” Gores said.
The bond will tax SVSD residents $0.39 per $1,000 of assessed property value for the next 20 years. Ideally, the bonds will provide the maximum amount of revenue needed by the district for its capital facilities projects.
Bond on its way to approval
March 18, 2009
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.
School bond on its way to passing
March 11, 2009
The Snoqualmie Valley School District’s $27.5 million bond is on its way to a passing grade.
As of March 11, the bond not only had enough votes for validation, it had received approval by a 65.82 percent mark. Only 60 percent approval is needed for it to pass.
A total of 5,328 voters had approved the bond, while 2,767 had voted against it. The ballot was all-mail, with March 10 set as the final day for ballots to be postmarked.
If passed, the money would allow the district to acquire portables at Mount Si High School to temporarily relieve crowding. The money would also pay for other repairs and capital improvements.
Results will not be final until March 25.
School officials could face tough decisions soon
February 26, 2009
This is the third in a three-part series describing the items on Resolution 727, a Snoqualmie Valley school bond set to be voted on March 10.
As registered Snoqualmie Valley voters fill out their ballots for a March 10 bond measure, school district staff are simultaneously working on a No Fund Plan — a plan B road map they may have to follow if the bond fails to garner 60 percent of the vote.
If approved, the $27.5 million bond would fund $22.1 million for repairs across the school district, including leaking roofs and broken heating and ventilation systems, finance a $3.6 million ninth-grade academy of portables at Mount Si and spend $1.8 million relocating the high school’s six tennis courts across Meadowbrook Way.
If voters decline the bond, the district will turn to its No Fund Plan.
School officials like Superintendent Joel Aune, left, and board member Caroline Loudenback, right, could have to make difficult decisions in the near future.
Bond would alleviate crowding in the short term
February 20, 2009
This is the second in a three-part series describing the items on Resolution 727, a Snoqualmie Valley school bond set to be voted on March 10.
By Laura Geggel
Mount Si High School could have a ninth-grade academy and a new commons area if Snoqualmie Valley School District residents approve an upcoming $27.5 million bond.
For $5.4 million, the high school is slated to place 12 portables on top of the current tennis courts and move the six tennis courts across Meadowbrook Way. The portables would have men’s and women’s restrooms, a covered walkway from the main building and would be elevated to circumvent flooding.
By housing 360 more students, the portables would alleviate crowding in the short term.
Mount Si High School students navigate through the main hallway after lunch. The crowded scene is a common one at the high school.
Bond would patch schools back together
February 12, 2009
This is the first in a three-part series describing the items on Resolution 727, a Snoqualmie Valley school bond set to be voted on March 10.
Last year, Lori George volunteered in Sharon Miller’s classroom, helping the fourth-grade Opstad Elementary teacher check homework and exams.
“I just happened to be there in the hallway on a very rainy day, correcting tests,” George said. “I was just watching the rain drip down through the ceiling tiles down onto the floor in the hallway.”
Snoqualmie Valley School Operations Supervisor Carl Larson shows where the insulation is falling apart at the district’s warehouse freezer.
Snoqualmie Valley full of stories in 2008
January 2, 2009
Immediately after the SnoValley Star began publishing in March, the Snoqualmie Valley provided many interesting stories to report on.
Just in the first month, there was another run made at a second high school, a debate over a soccer field, an agreement signed that ended a long-awaited moratorium and a heated public discussion over a hospital.
From a state playoff run by the Mount Si football team to a bizarre robbery at a local fast-food chain, the year continued to provide intriguing story lines. Five, however, stood out among the rest. Here is a run-down of the top five stories of 2008.
While the Rev. Ken Hutcherson and others came to Mount Si High School to protest the Day of Silence April 25, others were on hand to support it.
