Ask questions about proposed $147.5 million Stanwood school

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, November 30, 2016

STANWOOD — Questions about the proposal for a new $147.5 million high school can be asked at a public meeting Monday evening.

The Stanwood-Camano School District has scheduled an open house with the project architect and district leaders. It’s planned from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday in the library at Stanwood High School, 7400 272nd St. NW.

The district is asking voters to approve a bond for a new Stanwood High School and Lincoln Hill High. The measure is set for the Feb. 14 ballot.

Plans call for a 241,000-square-foot high school and 43,500-square-foot building for alternative programs, along with new practice fields and upgrades at the stadium. Though the size and location of the buildings have been decided, the rest of the design work still is in progress, said Gary Platt, the district’s executive director of business services. Architects are talking with teachers about what is needed in classrooms. Detailed design work won’t be done until votes are in on the bond measure.

Other district construction debts have been paid and a levy for repair, maintenance and technology upgrades is expected to decrease from $1.31 per $1,000 assessed property value to $0.13 per $1,000 after 2017. The high school bond would be about $1.23 per $1,000 in 2018. If the bond passes, total school taxes are expected to stay at about $3.52 per $1,000, or $880 on a $250,000 home, according to district documents.

The most common question about the high school planning so far relates to how many students could fit in the new building, Platt said.

“People look around their own neighborhoods, and some people have a lot of young kids moving in, so you think, ‘Wow, we must really be growing,’” he said. “(The meeting) is kind of a chance to talk with people about what the data shows right now, and also to answer other questions.”

At the current enrollment of 1,200 high school students, the school would be nearly 60 percent full. If all classrooms were used and classes were full but not crowded, the school could hold about 1,700 students.

The district expects the number of students to stay fairly steady for the next 14 years, based on birth and enrollment rates. It’s more difficult to predict how many families might move to the area, Platt wrote in a message to the community. Planners estimate it would take nearly 2,800 new households in the area to grow from 1,200 to 1,700 students.

At Monday’s event, guests also can tour the current high school to see problem areas.

The school opened in 1971. Teachers and administrators say classrooms are outdated, storage space is lacking and security needs to be improved. There are more outdoor walkways than indoor hallways, along with 80 exterior doors that must be locked from outside in an emergency. There also have been problems with plumbing, including sewer backups and burst water lines.

Stanwood’s passing periods between classes are two minutes longer than most high schools to let students cross the sprawling campus. Over the years, classes have spilled into two rows of beige portables known as “Portable Village.”

Teachers describe problems planning modern lessons in decades-old computer and science rooms. For example, there’s not enough room in science labs to do all of the experiments they’d like to teach.

A decade ago, voters rejected a $110.7 million bond to replace the school.

Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.

Learn more

For more information about the new high school bond, go online to www.stanwood.wednet.edu/bond-information.html or call 360-629-1222.