Editorial: Support Granite Falls, Stanwood-Camano school bond requests
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, February 1, 2017
By The Herald Editorial Board
With two Snohomish County school districts going to the voters this month for approval of bonds for major construction projects, it’s important to note that the Legislature’s ongoing discussions about school funding won’t change how we pay to build the schools, themselves.
As it has been, that will remain a partnership between the state — using a combination of funding sources from state trust lands, the general fund, bonds and even some from lottery receipts — and property taxpayers within each school district.
Regardless of what happens in Olympia this session, school districts will continue to go to voters seeking approval of bonds to help pay a major portion of new school construction and renovation projects.
Ballots already have been mailed to voters in the Granite Falls and Stanwood-Camano school districts seeking approval of bonds for construction projects. Ballots must be mailed or returned to ballot drop boxes by Tuesday, Feb. 14. Both districts must receive 60 percent of the vote to win approval for the bonds.
The Herald recommends voters in each district approve their bond requests.
Granite Falls School District is seeking $13.7 million in bond funding for three projects in the district.
The first would renovate Granite Falls Middle School, first built as the high school in 1964. As education and the subjects taught have changed, so too must the school buildings. The middle school project seeks to update the building’s classrooms to better foster instruction in STEAM courses for the schools more than 400 students. Most are familiar with STEM’s acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. STEAM adds an “A” for art.
As reported in The Herald in December, the school has recently added electives in engineering and manufacturing, forensics, environmental science, digital media and communications, and a family and consumer science curriculum with culinary arts, textiles and home economics.
The second project would build a grandstand at the high school’s football field and track facility. the current field has bleacher seating for about 500. A covered grandstand would accommodate as many as 2,000 fans. The project would also provide new team locker rooms, restrooms and covered equipment storage space.
The third project would improve safety equipment throughout the district’s schools for its nearly 2,000 students, update video cameras, centralize its monitoring system and make improvements to fencing and lighting.
Granite Falls School District has timed its bond request to mesh with reductions in its operating levy and an existing bond to keep the district’s overall impact on taxpayers steady and predictable. In the first year of the 20-year bond request, 2018, the district’s overall property tax will total about $5.95 per $1,000 of assessed value through 2024, lower than the 2016 rate of $6.33 per $1,000.
Stanwood-Camano School District is seeking a $147.5 million bond for construction of a new high school that would replace the current high school built in 1971. Built with a sprawling design favored at the time, the old high school has more than 80 exterior doors and relies on 14 portable classrooms, making security difficult. As well, the old school has plumbing and sewer problems that are at best a nuisance amd at worst a health concern and are not a productive environment for learning, as The Herald reported in November.
Renovating the existing building, with water, sewer and heating systems reaching the end of their reliable service life, was not seen as cost-effective by the district.
A new school with more than 240,000 square feet would serve the high school’s 1,200 students with additional space for 260 students at the Lincoln Hill High School and Saratoga School programs.
The new building would improve security by limiting access, provide classrooms for a range of STEM classes and the school’s career and technical education programs, as well as agriculture, business, health and athletic training and communications classes and more. The project would provide a new gym and fitness center, wrestling room, weight room and locker rooms as well as sports fields for softball, soccer, baseball and tennis courts. A new 600-seat performing arts center would also provide space for drama, band and choir classes.
As has Granite Falls, Stanwood-Camano officials have structured the bond request so that the new 20-year bond would begin as an existing capital projects and technology levy tails off. In its first year in 2018, the district’s combined tax rate for levies and bond would amount to about $3.52 per $1,000 of assessed value, down from 2016’s combined rate of $3.55 per $1,000 of assessed value.
Both Stanwood-Camano and Granite Falls school districts have planned new facilities that meet the needs of their students and their communities while respecting the ability of district taxpayers to meet those needs.
Voters in each district should approve their bond.
