EVERETT — The Everett School Board appears to be one step away from approving a new $23.3 million administration building, a project that has been talked about off and on for years.
The proposed 62,000-square-foot building is by far the biggest of three construction projects expected to be v
oted on at the school board’s next meeting on July 5.
The other two projects are replacing the aging cinder tracks at Jackson and Cascade high schools with synthetic tracks.
A total of $2 million has been proposed for planning and construction of the new tracks, which could be completed by the summer of 2012.
Although the new administration building has come under fire from some in the community, no one showed up at public hearing Tuesday evening to speak in opposition to it.
However, six people spoke in favor of the project. They included Sue Cooper, a former Everett school board member and Paul Sjunnesen, a former school district superintendent who retired in 1992.
The plan for a new administration building began while he was still superintendent, Sjunnesen said “Now is the time; you have the financing,” he said.
Approving a new administration building “is never the most popular thing in the community,” he said. “It’s just a difficult ask. You have to grit your teeth and say you need to do this.”
Cooper said that the project was put on the back burner and funds were set aside over the years to pay for it.
“The funds are there,” she said. “We do not have to go to the voters. We can use interest-free money.”
The building would be constructed on school district property at the south end of Everett Memorial Stadium on Broadway near 41st Street.
Some $9.8 million for the new administration building would come from state matching funds for construction projects. The rest of the money would come from a variety of school district funding sources, including $3.4 million from property sales, $ 1.3 million in rent income, $5.7 million in interest in $200,000 in rebates and grants.
Between now and 2013 when the administration building, if approved, is projected to open, the school district estimates another $2.9 million in revenue from rent, interest, property sales, grants and rebates, for a total of $13.5 million in local money.
The proposal to construct a new administration building comes at a time when cutbacks in state funding have caused the Everett School District, like districts throughout the state, to make cutbacks in its 2011-12 school year budget.
Everett is expected to whack about $4 million from its budget through steps such as increasing school lunch prices, changing bus routes for high school students and perhaps boosting class sizes.
However, based on comments made by the school board members Tuesday evening, approval of the tracks and new administration building seem to be all but a formality. Only one board member, Jessica Olson, spoke out against the project while the other four board members strongly supported it.
“You guys have the votes here to implement a new administration building by fiat rather than taking it to the people” for a vote, Olson said.
The new building would consolidate administrative offices now spread among several buildings in the school district. One of those buildings, the Longfellow building at 3715 Oakes Ave., is 100 years old.
“We pride ourselves in the quality of our buildings, except for two,” Ed Petersen, board president, said of the current administration buildings.
“I resent the notion that we’re not doing this for the students,” he said.
Petersen has said that he wants the new administration building to be used as a center that can be used by the community and to help promote preschool education. He said he wants a statement of purpose outlining the various uses the building could be used for when the school board votes on the project at its meeting next week.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
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