We’ll start here: The average age of a public school building in the United States, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, was 42, as of 1999. A more recent estimate, in a Washington Post commentary by Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, puts the average age at 44 years.
Four schools that the Marysville School District now seeks to replace in its $230 million bond request are between 46 and 65 years old. The four schools, as with about 45 percent of U.S. public schools, were built for the baby boom generation: Marysville Pilchuck High School in 1970, Marysville Middle in 1960, Cascade Elementary in 1955 and Liberty Elementary in 1951.
The schools, like the children they were first built for, are showing their age.
Maintenance staff have had to “MacGyver” — a reference that is itself dated — fixes to the heating and air-conditioning system at Marysville Middle School because parts are no longer made for it, said Marysville School Board President Pete Lundberg, in a recent meeting with The Herald Editorial Board and reporter Chris Winters. And a classroom floor at Liberty was weak enough a teacher put her foot through it, Lundberg continued.
School district voters last approved a $118.2 million school bond request in 2006 — by only eight votes — that built Grove Middle School and Marysville Getchell High School. But bonds in 2010 twice failed to reach the 60 percent supermajority required.
Voters are being asked to approve a 20-year bond that would increase the district’s property tax levy by $1.25 per $1,000 of assessed value. A homeowner with the median home value for Marysville, $231,000, would pay an additional $289 a year, about $72.25 more on each quarterly tax statement.
Along with replacement of the four schools above:
- A new middle school would be built in north Marysville to meet the needs of growth in the community;
- Totem Middle School would be relocated to the Marysville Tulalip campus, now home to the Arts &Technology High School, which would be moved to the rebuilt Marysville Pilchuck campus; and
- Throughout the district, facility improvements would replace roofs and upgrade fire alarms, intercom and mechanical systems and provide classrooms with the technological capacity that 21st century students require.
- Safety and security are concerns for any school district; a need painfully felt at Marysville schools.
A public process that included site visits at Marysville schools to evaluate deficiencies at older schools and improvements made at newer campuses, pointed out the design flaws in the older schools, built to a California style that resulted in classrooms that opened out onto outdoor hallways and created difficulties in controlling access.
By retiring 23 portable classrooms throughout the district, and designing buildings with limited points of entry, some of the more glaring security concerns are resolved.
Beyond security, the new schools and refurbishments elsewhere will simply provide for better schools and better learning environments. Marysville Superintendent Dr. Becky Berg also raised a civil rights concern with the older schools; some of the district’s most economically disadvantaged students are attending its oldest schools, raising issues regarding equity for all of Marysville’s 10,600 students.
Bernstein, in his Washington Post commentary, address this concern specifically: “When a child who is already held back by disadvantages in her neighborhood attends a school with poor air quality, hazardous materials, poor acoustics and inadequate heating and cooling, research shows she will have a new set of problems. Those conditions are correlated with elevated levels of truancy, absenteeism, higher teacher turnover and even lower student performance.”
Put simply: Old, rundown schools discourage students and are a detriment to learning.
The Marysville community team that assessed the schools’ needs and listened to the public about its capacity to fund construction is presenting a bond request that offers a justifiable slate of projects that will serve students and the community well.
A yes vote will result in Marysville schools that are meant for the current generation of kids and beyond.
April 26 special election
Voters in the Marysville and Everett school districts have been sent their ballots for the April 26 election. Ballots must be returned or postmarked by April 26. For more information from the Snohomish County Auditor’s Office and a list of ballot drop boxes, go to tinyurl.com/SnoCoAprilVote or call 425-388-3444.
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