SNOHOMISH – Crammed hallways, traffic jams and freshmen taking classes almost half a mile away are clear indications that Snohomish High School is packed.
“Overcrowding is for real,” said Phil Bastian, a parent and co-chairman of a 35-member advisory committee that recommends building a new high school. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to confirm that.”
Beyond the high school, Snohomish School District officials say the three elementary schools in the south end of the district have a a total of 417 more students than they were designed to hold. And 450 new homes are expected to be built in the are in the next few years.
Therefore, the district is asking voters to approve a $141.6 million bond on May 18 that would build a new high school and elementary school in the south end. The bond includes $63 million for modernizing the existing high school – almost as much as the new high school would cost.
The property tax rate would increase by an estimated $1.39 per $1,000 of assessed property value and would cost the owner of a $200,000 home about $23.17 a month, or $278 a year.
Some say the tax is too high and that Snohomish’s aging and retired residents won’t be able to afford it.
Kathryn Deierling, a former school board member and Snohomish business owner, is also concerned whether the school district can maintain two high schools. She said the district has a stagnant tax base and is near the legal limit of what it can ask from taxpayers.
“How are they going to fill this building with staff and support staff and, at the same time, maintain the (existing) buildings you say you can’t maintain now?” she said.
Deierling and others argue that the district didn’t do enough to consider other alternatives to overcrowding at the current high school. They say options such as shifting Snohomish High to a “schools within a school” format and using staggered or longer class periods weren’t considered.
They also say the district could consider building on property around the high school that it already owns.
“Part of my problem is new fancy buildings don’t a school make,” Deierling said. The other options “are based on new and innovative ways of teaching, not necessarily new buildings.”
Ann Averill, a longtime Snohomish resident and co-chairwoman of the advisory committee that suggested the bond, said other options were considered. They simply weren’t viable.
“If there would have been a little fix needed, we would have considered those,” Averill said. “But I think we were overwhelmed by the enormity of the overcrowding problem.”
J.Marie Merrifield, a Snohomish School District spokeswoman, said the new high school would provide double the number of activities for students.
“There will be so many more opportunities for the same number of students to be involved,” she said, listing sports, band, drama and other programs. “The high school has gotten so large, it’s less of a place of community than it once was. It’s easier to be anonymous and feel alone.”
Another obstacle the district has to overcome is trust. The district is still bouncing back from a financial meltdown in the late 1990s.
“Ten years ago, there was a perception that maybe the administration didn’t deserve our trust,” Bastian said. “But (Superintendent) Bill Mester has done a fabulous job of going out and rebuilding the community and engaging the people. I really think we’ve turned the corner.”
Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
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