Plans to adapt to a growing student population were put on hold by the Lake Washington School District (LWSD) after voters tuned down a $234 million bond measure proposition in the Feb. 9 special election.
Proposition 3, a general obligation bonds issue to expand and build new schools, failed to pass with only 56 percent support of the 60 percent needed. With nearly 35 percent of registered voters participating, the measure fell short by about 1,500 votes.
“It’s certainly disappointing,” said LWSD Communications Director Kathryn Reith. “The good news is, a lot of this stuff we’re trying to do is proactive.”
Home to a young and growing population of school-age children, LWSD — which covers all of Kirkland, Redmond and northern Sammamish — is focused on ways to accommodate that growth in the future.
With overcrowding conditions emerging in several schools, most notably at Rosa Parks Elementary School in the Redmond Ridge area, the school board must now review current plans on how to best manage that growth. Announced last year, the preferred solution is a reorganization of school grades, shifting 6th grade into middle schools and 9th grade classes into high schools — theoretically saving money in building costs. But voter rejection of the bond has dealt that plan a set back.
“What it does is raise lots of questions,” said Reith. “We can’t go ahead with it until we get bond money. Eastlake and Redmond don’t have the room. The board’s going to have to look at this.”
The failed bond would have also provided for the renovation of Kirkland’s Juanita High School, the oldest high school building in the district. Built in 1971, educators soon found the “open plan” interior of the school didn’t meet the needs of their curriculum and temporary walls and lighting were installed to make the best of the environment. While the renovation work remains scheduled on the district’s capital improvements plan for 2014, the school board and administrators hoped to get a jump on historically low interest rates and construction costs.
“We thought we’d do it now, put it to the voters while things are cheaper, rather than waiting,” said Reith.
The bond measure also proposed construction of two new elementary schools; a new Environmental and Adventure choice school for middle school-age students; building additions to Eastlake and Redmond high schools and modernizing Juanita High School in Kirkland.
Voters in the district are usually generous in supporting education, but the largesse has its limits. The last time a local bond measure failed was in 1982, while a pair of levies were also turned down in 1994.
Some blame for the narrow rejection of the bond, said Reith, could be put down to voter communication after the LWSD school board decided not to pay for publishing an explanation of the bond in the voter guide. Some say that left local voters confused after neighboring school districts elected to publish explanations of their bonds and levies.
“That’s true of a number of school districts,” Reith said. “Those measures aren’t usually in the voter guide.”
The bond would have raised property taxes by 32 cents for every $1,000 of assessed value over 20 years. Reith said the board could return another bond measure with a different approach — such as focusing only on overcrowding — to voters next year.
