MARYSVILLE – Leaders in the Marysville School District hope a smaller bond measure will gain voters’ favor after two narrow defeats at the polls last year.
The district has not passed a bond measure in 16 years – the longest stretch in Snohomish County.
The $118 million proposal, down from $171 million last spring, would build a second high school and a new elementary school. It would also buy land, upgrade technology and finance other improvements.
The bond will appear on the Feb. 7 ballot along with a second proposition, a four-year maintenance and operations levy that would replace an expiring one. The bond is aimed at accommodating rapid growth at some already overcrowded schools.
“You have your wants, your needs and your gotta-haves,” Superintendent Larry Nyland said. “Now we are down to our gotta-haves.”
A fall survey of 240 staff members and district residents found that 99 percent listed a new high school and 60 percent listed a new elementary school as top priorities.
Gone from the previous measure are projects that would have rebuilt Cascade and Liberty elementary schools and upgraded Marysville-Pilchuck High School.
Those projects will be put off until 2010, giving the district a chance to build trust among voters that it can complete the construction on time and within budget, Nyland said.
The district has 117 portables serving about 3,000 students -about 30 percent of the district’s enrollment. Marysville-Pilchuck, the second-largest high school in the state, is about 650 students over capacity; 425 ninth-graders attend Marysville Junior High School because of lack of room at the high school.
“I think everyone agrees that 2,500 kids on a high school campus is pretty outrageous and something needs to be done,” said John Garner, co-chairman of the group Citizens for Marysville Schools, which is promoting the bond measure.
Garner was Marysville-Pilchuck’s first principal, retiring in 1982 when there were about 1,400 students. Some district projections show the high school could reach 3,000 students within five years if nothing is done.
“I can’t imagine being a principal of a high school with 2,500 students,” he said.
The new high school would be built on Getchell Hill for 1,600 students. Housing projects north of 84th Street NE and west of the new campus call for rerouting and building a road that would reduce the grade from 15 percent to less than 10 percent.
The new elementary school would be built in the Sunnyside area or on land between Allen Creek and Kellogg Marsh elementary schools. Both are fast-growing areas.
Even some members of Levies Are for Students, a small group that opposes Marysville’s levy, said they support the bond measure.
Former school board member Ron Young bought black-and-white signs with a message to vote “yes” on bonds and “no” on the levy. The signs now dot some of the district’s thoroughfares.
While he is dissatisfied with how levy money has been used, and with a teachers labor contract that he voted against while on the board, Young said there is a clear need to build the new schools, and it won’t get any cheaper as the years pass.
“The longer we delay, the more it is going to cost the taxpayers,” Young said. “The bond will pass whether it’s this year, next year or three years from now. The only difference is we will get less for the money.”
The tax rate on the 20-year bond would vary from year to year, but will taper down over time as new homes are built and the district tax base grows. When an existing bond is counted in, the total bond rate property owners would pay would be $1.55 per $1,000 of assessed value. The effect would be an additional $96 assessment on a $200,000 home, compared with the 2005 rate.
Overall, when levies and bonds are combined, the total tax rate would be an estimated $4.70 per $1,000 of assessed value, or $940 on a $200,000 home. That’s up from $4.22 per $1,000 in 2005, but less than the 15-year average of $5.31 per $1,000, according to district records.
The district will pay off the final $7 million incrementally by December 2009, said Jim Baker, the district’s finance director. It’s now using about 3 percent of its bonding capacity.
Last year’s bond measures received more than 58 percent support but fell short of the 60 percent supermajority required by state law.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
