SNOHOMISH — More than 31,000 ballots have been mailed to voters across the Snohomish School District who will decide March 11 whether to approve a $265 million bond measure that would finish renovating Snohomish High School and pay for several other major projects.
The proposal follows months of work by a local committee last year that came up with a long list of recommendations after several public hearings.
“It has taken a lot of work to get this far,” said Betty Robertson, the district’s acting superintendent. “We listened to a lot of people.”
Besides providing funding for work on Snohomish High School, the bond would allow the district to renovate and expand Valley View Middle School, expand Centennial Middle School, replace Machias and Riverview elementary schools, build a new aquatics center for school and community use and improve technology. It also would provide money for smaller building projects.
The aquatics center, which could be built at the Snohomish Freshman Campus, would replace Hal Moe Pool, which was closed last year because of extensive safety and structural problems with the old building.
The 20-year bond measure will need a 60 percent supermajority to pass. While voters statewide in November decided to scrap the supermajority requirement on school levies in favor of a simple majority, school bonds still must receive a 60 percent “yes” vote. In general, levies are for school programs and bonds are for buildings and land purchases.
School district leaders are eager to see Snohomish High completed. A $141 million bond measure passed in 2004 provided money for several projects, including Glacier Peak High School, which is scheduled to open next fall, and Little Cedars Elementary School, which opened in September. However, there wasn’t enough money to finish Snohomish High.
The 2004 bond included $63.8 million to modernize Snohomish High. The current estimated total project cost is $110.8 million.
Construction crews continue to work on the Snohomish High School campus with money from the first bond. Among other projects, they are building a new three-story, 28-classroom building scheduled to open this fall.
The next phase would include building a new library media center and performing arts center, demolishing an old building and renovating another building, and completing a new bus loop and visitor parking.
Soaring material and construction costs, both locally and nationally, hit Snohomish and other school districts across the state hard. Bond interest and state matching money that could have been used at Snohomish High School was used to finish the other two schools, which also faced steep inflation during construction.
“It’s no secret that the costs have skyrocketed, but there is a misconception that the original (Snohomish High School renovation) budget was used to finish the other two projects,” Robertson said. “It was not.”
Cost to the taxpayer is estimated at 19 cents per $1,000 of assessed value each year, school district officials said.
That means the owner of a $400,000 home would pay $76 a year.
However, by the time tax money would be collected, a bus levy that costs 22 cents per $1,000 of assessed value would expire. That means the overall tax rate when combining school levies and bonds would remain the same at $4.45 per $1,000 in 2009, according to school district estimates.
“Your worry is you will have people look at the ($265 million) dollar amount without looking at the impact” on the tax rate, Robertson said.
There has been no organized opposition group to the bond proposal.
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