The Redmond City Council is expected to vote on Jan. 5, in support of two Lake Washington School District (LWSD) levies and a bond measure that will go before voters in February of next year, according to retiring council president Nancy McCormick.
The proposed funding measures include a four-year Educational Programs and Operations Levy (EPO), a four-year Capital Projects Levy (CPl) including both facilities and technology items, and a new bond measure.
LWSD Superintendent Dr. Chip Kimball spoke with Redmond City Councilmembers at a Dec. 8 study session.
“The Council did direct the administration to prepare a resolution in support of the measures,” McCormick told the Redmond Reporter on Dec. 15.
“Councilmembers all stated how important good schools are to a city and to a good economy,” McCormick said.
The EPO levy would renew the current levy which will expire at the end of 2010. It pays for many of the district’s core items such as teacher training, textbooks and transportation.
The renewal CPL provides money for building repairs and system replacements, as well as technology replacement and upgrades.
The bond measure would enable the construction of two new elementary schools in Redmond, the expansion of Redmond and Eastlake High Schools and the Environmental and Adventure School in Kirkland.
It would also fund the rebuilding of Juanita High School, which Kimball has described as “a challenged facility, to say the least.”
The Juanita rebuild had been planned for 2014 but the district is moving now to take advantage of the favorable bidding environment for construction projects.
Regarding the need for new elementary schools, Kimball commented, “We are seeing growth in the Redmond Ridge area and the 116th Street corridor (in Redmond).”
The district is also hoping to change its three-year high schools into four-year high schools, in line with most other school districts and in support of evidence that such a configuration better prepares students for college.
The total of all three funding measures proposed by the LWSD would increase the total tax paid on a home with the average assessed value in the district from $1,448 in 2010 to $1,618 in 2011 or an increase of approximately $170.
For more information, visit the LWSD Web site at www.lwsd.org.
