School district getting ready to ask for levy and bond

  • Jennifer Aaby<br>Enterprise writer
  • Monday, March 3, 2008 6:45am

LYNNWOOD –– If voters approve a $140 million bond in February, the Edmonds School District will be able to do $280 million worth of districtwide capital construction projects, said school Superintendent Nick Brossoit.

In other words, with the approval of voters, the school district could do twice the amount of work for the taxes collected.

The lengthy list of items the school district plans to address includes (see accompanying box for complete list of projects) building a new Lynnwood High School on the district’s North Road property; rebuilding Meadowdale Middle School on its current land; remodeling Alderwood Middle, Madrona K-8 and Lynndale Elementary; and other projects affecting every school within the district.

A capital construction bond including a replacement for Lynnwood High previously has been placed on the ballot twice, both times falling short of the 60 percent supermajority state law requires for passage. However, the bond headed for the February ballot looks different than those earlier efforts in 2002 and 2003.

This time around, the district plans to use funding from property sales and leases of the current Lynnwood High land to complete an additional $140 million worth of projects, Brossoit said.

That additional money would only be available if the bond passes and the financial dominoes start falling, he said. To free up the current Lynnwood High land for lease, the district needs to relocate the school, he said.

The tax impact for residents will vary from year to year, as the taxes will only be collected when the school district needs to sell the bonds The bonds will only be sold when the construction work is taking place, Brossoit said. He said the estimates for tax rates per $1,000 will be 13 cents in 2007, 27 cents in 2008, 77 cents in 2009 and 2010 and 33 cents in 2011.

The levy collections for the sale of previous bonds will decrease during the same period, and the overall taxes collected for the school district also will decrease, he said.

Brossoit said the district has received a lot of input on the bond, listed as Proposition 2 on the ballot.

“This has the fingerprints of an awful lot of folks in the community,” Brossoit said.

The school district and volunteers have been working for years to prepare an itemized list of the capital projects needed to be completed around the school district, said Mark Dillan, chair of the facility subcommittee for the Citizen’s Planning Committee.

The CPC includes a representative from every school, in addition to representatives for the school board members, he said. The facilities subcommittee has analyzed each school in the district and prioritized the work that needs to be done, Dillan said.

Lynnwood High tops that list, Dillan said.

The school, built in 1969, was intended to last about 30 years, he said. New high schools are being built with 50-year lifespans, Dillan said.

By relocating Lynnwood High and the district’s maintenance and transportation buildings, the school district will be opening a window of opportunity to lease both properties, which are near the Alderwood mall and in prime locations, he said.

“It gives us, as a district, an ability to have a continuous revenue source that does not come out of the pockets of the taxpayers,” Dillan said.

Something for everyone

Included in the $140 million bond is $16 million set aside for improvements at sites around the district.

“Every school will receive some attention from this bond,” Dillan said.

He said a key aspect addressed by the bond is emergency preparedness. Each school will receive a specially built shed to house emergency supplies and resources, he said.

“With this bond, they can now have the actual raw materials to respond to an emergency,” Dillan said.

Some schools will also receive cable or power upgrades for technology. Individual school needs, such as specific classroom improvements and repairs, also fall into this $16 million portion of the bond.

Levy replacement

Proposition 1, the other item going on the February ballot, is a replacement levy for programs and operation, which would raise approximately $34.6 million a year for four years.

Proposition 1 replaces an existing levy that expires in 2006 and is not an additional tax, Brossoit said.

“It’s local funding for local schools and makes up nearly 20 percent of what we have in our general fund,” Brossoit said.

The current levy pays for 90 teachers to keep class sizes small; 112 paraeducators and staff to support students and programs; books and materials; transportation; athletics, music and drama programming; co-curricular activities; and other district needs.

Taxpayers now pay $2.06 for each $1,000 of assessed property value for the current levy. The replacement levy would start at $2 per $1,000 in 2007 and would go down to $1.75 per $1,000 in 2010, Brossoit said.

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