LYNNWOOD – Voters in the Edmonds School District will likely face a $140 million bond proposal in February that would include a new Lynnwood High School and rebuild Meadowdale Middle School.
The Edmonds School Board is expected to decide Sept. 6 whether to place the 20-year bond measure on the Feb. 7, 2006, ballot. It reviewed the proposal Tuesday night.
Topping the list of projects is a new Lynnwood High School, which would be built on a 40-acre site on North Road east of I-5. It would replace the existing high school across from Alderwood mall.
The new campus would be built for up to 1,600 students, with an expected completion date of 2009.
Meadowdale Middle School also would be replaced, most likely on the existing site.
A study of district buildings rated each for physical needs and educational function.
“Basically it was the neediest school,” said Marla Miller, the district’s executive director of business and operations. “There are many schools kind of clustered at similar scores.”
Other schools would also be improved with the bond money.
The measure will need a 60 percent supermajority to pass. The bond rate will vary from year to year, but the cost of the bond was not available Tuesday.
The $140 million bond would meet less than half the district’s building needs, district officials said. The Citizens Planning Committee, a panel of district staff and residents, has made $290 million worth of building recommendations.
The district hopes to raise $150 million by selling and leasing land it owns.
The school board is considering selling a 3.9-acre parcel to a Seattle developer for $6.3 million. The land, which once was home to district headquarters, is across the street from the new Lynnwood Convention Center.
The board on Tuesday night did agree to sell a piece of undeveloped property to the Cascade Land Conservancy for $570,000. The 20-acre site, which is off 161st Place SW in the north-central part of the district, is mostly wetlands and not suited for development, Miller said.
The district also is looking to sell or lease other land. It has received plenty of interest in the land where Lynnwood High School now stands for a long-term lease, Miller said.
It is promoting the land nationwide.
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