Stop home building until we get schools

I am a parent of two elementary-aged children who attend school in Marysville. The school my children attend opened in the late 1960s, built to handle 500-550 students. This year there are more than 700 students at the school. The septic system is failing due to overuse and in fact, if one more septic tank fails, they will be forced to close all bathrooms and bring in porta pottys.

Yet, the school my children attend was not even one of the projects on the recent school bond that failed. This isn’t because the Marysville School District doesn’t care about this school, but with so many issues needing to be dealt with, it has prioritized its projects as best as it can. The last new schools built in Marysville were built 15 years ago. Yes, we need a new high school, but just building a new high school won’t solve our problems, we also need to think about the younger students who will grow up to attend the new high school.

We as a community are facing an emergency. Our schools cannot handle any more new students and yet I continue to see new housing developments being built. Since the community cannot muster the 60 percent approval needed to pass the bond, perhaps we need to shut down new housing developments until we as a community can come up with a way to fund new schools that are needed to accommodate children moving into these homes.

Jennifer McCoy

Marysville