LAKE STEVENS – Voters here will be asked to shell out more money than expected to build a new school and modernize others. But fewer pennies will be pinched per taxpayer under the district’s revised bond proposal.
School board members will vote Wednesday on final language for the Feb. 8 election.
The proposed $65.5 million request is 16 percent more than the district’s original estimate of $56.5 million. The primary reason is a lower estimate for state matching funds. Higher steel prices also are a factor.
The owner of a $200,000 home would pay an additional $72 per year. Voters had been looking at a tax increase of $128 per year under earlier estimates, but rising property values and a growing population helped lower the cost to individual taxpayers.
Superintendent David Burgess said school leaders lowered their estimate of state matching funds – from $27.8 million to $17.5 million – as a precaution.
The state Board of Education is expected to change the formula for state-match funds in March, he said. If the changes are not grandfathered for districts that approve bond issues before that time, districts such as Lake Stevens would get less in matching funds.
“The one inexcusable thing as a superintendent and school board is to go out and promise you’re going to do something and then not be able to do that,” Burgess said.
Should state matching funds remain higher, the extra money would go toward other capital projects – such as expanding the bus facility and purchasing property, he said.
School leaders are seeking the bond issue to deal with growth. District enrollment has doubled since 1988.
A new eighth- and ninth-grade school is the proposal’s biggest-ticket item at $59.4 million. The school, which would open in fall 2007, later would be converted into a second high school.
Currently, Lake Stevens High is among the largest in the state at 2,264 students.
Until this fall, there weren’t even enough lockers for upperclassmen, said Carter Fronsman, 18.
“Even walking from class to class is really difficult. We get five minutes, but sometimes it takes longer just to get through a hallway,” the senior said.
Also expected to be on the ballot: $23.5 million to modernize the district’s three oldest elementary schools, $5.3 million to modernize the high school commons and $3.4 million to modernize the high school stadium.
In all, project costs exceed the total amount of revenue expected by $8.6 million if the state reduces its matching-fund formula. The district would draw from its capital fund if needed to make ends meet, Burgess said.
Mount Pilchuck and Hillcrest elementary schools were both built in 1953, and Sunnycrest was built in 1969. All three would get plumbing and electrical upgrades and new windows, floors and ceilings.
At the high school, a commons area would be added. Electrical, plumbing and telephone upgrades also would be included.
Finally, the stadium would be redone, including a synthetic playing surface, bleachers that increase capacity from 1,625 seats to 2,500, and concessions and press areas.
About 74 percent of residents who answered a district survey in October favored a $57 million proposal. Support was strongest for improving elementary schools and building the new junior high school.
Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
