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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Mukilteo schools stick with bond By Eric Stevick Herald Writer MUKILTEO -- Voters in May will again decide a school bond package for the Mukilteo School District. The proposal is the same $139.2 million bond measure that failed to get the 60 percent supermajority required by state law when it was on the Feb. 19 ballot. It finished with 55.7 percent approval. "It is really a well-thought-out bond and it addresses many ongoing needs we have," said Judy Schwab, Mukilteo School Board president. "There wasn't any one thing that the board felt comfortable removing from the bond." The board voted 5-0 on Monday night to put it on the May 20 ballot. The bond measure would: Spend $41 million to renovate Mukilteo and Discovery elementary schools; Build a new $28 million elementary school near Lake Stickney; Spend $15.4 million to fix athletic facilities and fields at middle schools and at Kamiak and Mariner high schools, including Goddard Stadium; Set aside $12.5 million to buy land for buildings in the future; Provide $11.5 million to improve classrooms across the district; and Allocate $11 million to build classrooms to replace portables at ACES, the district's alternate high school in south Everett. It would also provide funds to upgrade technology in the schools. Enrollment in the district rose by nearly 1,000 students over the past 10 years and is expected to increase by more than that over the next decade. There are now 14,147 students, but that could increase to nearly 16,000 by 2017, according to a district consultant's enrollment projections. Growth has been particularly noticeable in the Lake Stickney area. For instance, Odyssey Elementary School opened with 563 students four years ago. Enrollment there last month was 780. The school has four portable classrooms used by 96 students. Next fall, all five of Odyssey's kindergarten classrooms will be bused to Serene Lake Elementary School to free up space. If the district didn't move Odyssey students elsewhere, the elementary school would have the district's third-largest enrollment, behind only Mariner and Kamiak high schools, said Andy Muntz, a school district spokesman. "It would become larger than our middle schools," he said. Fairmount Elementary School will add two more portables next fall, bringing the number of students in portables to about 150 next fall. If the bond measure fails, the district will assemble an advisory committee to redraw school boundaries to better balance enrollments by the fall of 2009, Schwab said. Odyssey isn't the only crowded school. The district has 74 portables used by 1,700 students, including 1,056 at the elementary school level. The 20-year bond measure would collect 31 cents per $1,000 of assessed value in the first year. That's $124 a year on a $400,000 home. Bond measures provide authority for school districts to borrow money to pay for building new schools, upgrading existing schools and buying land. While voters statewide in November decided to scrap the supermajority requirement on school levies in favor of a simple majority, school bonds must receive approval from 60 percent of the voters. In general, levies are for school maintenance and operation and bonds are for buildings and land purchases. Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.

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