STANWOOD — The Stanwood-Camano School District is designing a new high school and wants ideas.
Officials are hoping to get a bond measure on the ballot in February 2017, though the amount has yet to be finalized.
A committee of 45 parents, school employees, school board members and homeowners in the district has been planning for about a year. The group decided that a new school could replace the old one on the same property without the overall tax rate going up. Other levies and bonds have been paid off or are set to expire soon. A bond for a new high school would replace those taxes.
The committee looked at the cost per square foot of other high schools and determined that the “target not-to-exceed” price is $110 million, said Gary Platt, the district’s executive director of business services.
There are 1,306 students at Stanwood High School and 148 at Lincoln Hill, the alternative school that shares the same campus. The goal is to keep both schools on the same property, Platt said.
Enrollment has been flat or declining in recent years. The proposed new high school would be roughly 225,000 square feet, about the same size as the current building, which is 45 years old.
“It was built to meet the needs they had at the time and they did a great job with it, but it’s outlived its useful life,” Platt said. “We want to build something that will last our students another 50 years.”
The next step is gathering thoughts from people in Stanwood and on Camano Island, then drawing up plans. The design will determine cost, Platt said. A financing plan should be completed by the end of August and the school board aims to vote on a bond measure by Nov. 1.
Two public meetings were held in March. About 100 people attended. Groups were given a diagram of the campus and cutouts to arrange for different parts of the high school, such as parking lots, the gymnasium and clusters of classrooms. McGranahan Architects is using photos of those arrangements during design work, Platt said. District employees and students also are engaged in the exercise.
The next meetings are May 2 at Camano’s Utsalady Elementary and May 9 at Stanwood High School. Both start at 6:30 p.m.
“It’ll be, ‘Here’s what we heard you say. What do you think?’ ” Platt said.
People who missed the first meetings can email Platt at gplatt@stanwood.wednet.edu or Superintendent Jean Shumate at jshumate@stanwood.wednet.edu.
“We really want to get more people involved,” Shumate said. “We need to get through these next few months and then dive down into the details.”
Safety is one of the biggest pieces for the new high school, Platt and Shumate said. The current building is open and sprawling, with 80 entrances and exits. It’s hard to secure and long periods are needed for students to get from one class to the next. That cuts into learning time.
The new school would be more condensed. It also would be better set up for technology so the district can adapt to fast-changing requirements for data and power, Platt said.
The logistics of building the school still need to be figured out. It’s unclear how construction would be phased while students remain in the existing building.
In November 2013, voters approved a $29 million capital levy to upgrade school buildings and technology. It paid for projects such as new roofs, floors and boilers at Stanwood and Camano Island schools.
“Now our other buildings are ready to go for another 20 or 25 years,” Platt said.
That levy rate is expected to drop by $1.29 per $1,000 assessed value, from $1.44 per $1,000 now to 15 cents per $1,000 in 2018.
By waiting for the levy rate to decrease, Shumate said the new school could be paid for without increasing taxes. The expected 2017 tax rate — the year before a new bond would take affect — is $3.72 per $1,000 assessed value, or about $930 on a $250,000 house. If a bond isn’t approved, taxes could drop in 2018 by more than $300 per year on a $250,000 home.
In 2006, voters rejected a $110.7 million request to pay for a new high school. The district heard from voters that they wanted to see other bonds paid off so the high school could be built without raising taxes, Platt said.
Last year, the school board awarded a $191,315 contract to McGranahan Architects to handle design and cost analysis.
The new high school is part of a tax plan that looks ahead to 2025. The plan also includes periodic renewals of a maintenance and operations levy. In February, voters approved a four-year, $51.3 million levy renewal.
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.
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