Visit Lake Stevens High School during any of its three lunch periods and you’ll see why the district is asking voters to approve funding for a new school.
Students wait in line for up to 15 minutes just to get their meal, leaving only 15 more minutes to eat and get to their next class. Many who get squeezed out of table space eat while sitting on the floor outside the cafeteria. Others are virtually forced to leave campus for lunch, knowing that there simply isn’t room for everyone.
Lake Stevens High School’s enrollment of about 2,200 already is seventh-highest in the state, and the district’s population is expected to grow at a rate somewhere between fast and explosive for the foreseeable future. And while the $65.6 million bond issue voters are being asked to approve Feb. 8 will help address that growth, the money is badly needed in the here and now.
The measure, which would cost the owner of a $200,000 home $72 per year starting in 2006, would pay for a new mid-high school that would house eighth- and ninth-graders, easing overcrowding at the high school and the district’s two middle schools. The new school would be designed so it could be converted to a second high school in the future. The district’s three oldest elementary schools, which are 30 to 50 years old, would be modernized and brought up to current safety, seismic and building codes.
The high school’s overwhelmed and aging cafeteria, kitchen and commons area also would be modernized, and the outdated high school athletic field would get a new all-weather surface (which would be shared with the community, as are other district fields) and new stadium seating.
Overcrowding at the high school stretches far beyond the cafeteria, and seriously undermines effective learning. The school has 17 portables, and more are planned. Fifteen of the school’s 99 teachers don’t even have their own classroom. They have to carry their materials from class to class on a cart, limiting the teaching materials they have at hand. Just maneuvering through the packed hallways and unloading the cart can keep them from starting their classes on time.
The school board has put forth a prudent, cost-effective measure. It needs a 60 percent approval rate to pass, along with a sizeable turnout – 40 percent of those who voted in November’s presidential election must turn out for the bond measure to be validated.
So when your absentee ballot arrives, don’t set it aside – vote “yes” and return it right away. If you vote at the polls, mark Feb. 8 on your calendar so you won’t forget. Give students and teachers the space they need to succeed.
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