When my parents graduated from Snohomish High School in 1916, they could not have imagined what our community would look like nearly 100 years later. Today, seven of my parents’ great-grandchildren have completed their own Snohomish High School experiences. We’ve had one high school this whole time, and it has served us well.
Thanks to the school bond our community supported four years ago, we are about to open our second high school, Glacier Peak. The transition from a “one high school town” to a “two high school town” has been thoughtfully undertaken, and I’m pleased that our high school students will no longer be crowded into just one school. Now that half of our kids will go to a brand new high school across the valley, it is time to finish what we’ve started with the renovation of our historic downtown high school.
With the problem of high school overcrowding solved, we need to address the overcrowding in our middle schools. Both of our middle schools need to be expanded to meet the growing need for classroom space, and Valley View is badly in need of the renovation this bond will fund.
In my opinion, our community also needs a new pool. We have a history of championship swimmers who deserve our continued support, and the aquatic center the district is proposing will provide recreational and therapeutic pools that we can all make use of.
The bond on the March 11 ballot will meet these needs and more. It includes funds to replace worn-out roofs and ventilation systems throughout the district, and will ensure that all Snohomish schools, not just the new and newly renovated, have current technology to improve student learning. It will also pay for new schools to replace our community’s two oldest elementary schools, Machias and Riverview, which — at about 40 years — are older than many of their students’ parents.
When Dr. William Mester became our superintendent, he and the school board brought our community together to create a shared vision for our school facilities. A citizens committee developed a 15-year facilities plan. The 2004 bond got us moving in the right direction and paved the way for the bond that’s on this ballot.
Impressively, we can pass this bond without increasing our local school tax rate. District leaders knew in 2003 that the facilities plan was going to require several bond measures. When they ran the 2004 bond, the debt was carefully structured to have higher payments up front so that our taxes would not need to increase for this and future bonds. In addition, the 2006 bus levy expires this year. The combination of these two factors allows us to pass this bond while maintaining a stable tax rate.
Dr. Mester and his team have ushered in a new era of stability and forward progress for our schools. It is up to us to keep the momentum going. I urge you to mark your ballot YES for schools and return it today.
Cliff Bailey, a third-generation Snohomish resident, served two terms in the Washington state Senate.
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