School puts $11.9 million bond on ballot

Published 11:57 am Friday, August 17, 2012

It’s been a long time coming.

After two failed bond measures, the school is hoping its new $11.9 million building renovation plan will win over Orcas Island voters.

“This is not just an obligation, this is the most accountable way to use funds,” said Clyde Duke, who was vocal about his lack of support of the previous bond measures. He served on a committee of local contractors who helped shape a new direction for the middle school buildings, which are in the worst shape of all the campus structures. “This is now something that the community will understand and live with. It meets the needs of the staff, students and the community.”

The architectural firm Mahlum has designed a concept that keeps the existing foundation and calls for extensive remodel work in the middle school, library and cafeteria. In addition, a satellite building will be constructed for tech education. That site will also be used to house students during the school year when construction is taking place, which Mahlum architect Butch Reifert says will eliminate the expense of portable classrooms.

As superintendent Barbara Kline put it: the buildings constructed in the 1980s are falling apart. The current issues are rotting siding, little insulation, a heating system that is in disrepair and structures that don’t meet ADA or seismic code requirements. Reifert also wants the rooms to be open and full of light.

“There are a lot of studies about the impact of daylight and its relationship to teaching and learning,” he said.

The $11.9 million bond is for 20 years. The terms are 26 cents per thousand. The bond interest rate will be determined when they are sold, but the school is currently estimating 4 percent. If approved in November, the tax will go into effect in 2013, but the bonds can be sold as soon as the measure is approved.

“Interest rates are at an all-time low right now,” Duke said. “We need to take advantage of that.”

The history

The school’s initial bond, for $35 million, was put before voters in February 2010. The resolution earned 55 percent support, shy of the 60 percent super majority needed for approval. The school board reduced the project’s scope in the hope it would garner more votes. Six months later, in August 2010, voters rejected a $27 million bond. The vote was 1,059 yes, 1,234 no.

Letters to the Sounder evidenced a hot debate. Many said the monthly cost was within reason and thought the bond amount necessary, urging support. Some balked at the enormity of the bond during tough economic times, and

wanted the improvements broken down into smaller, phased projects, or argued for repair, not a complete rebuild.

But there was light at the end of the tunnel. In 2011, the school received energy grants for improvements to the elementary building and the siding of the high school. The elementary work, which included a single unit heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, motion control heat and lighting, and replacing the galvanized plumbing with copper pipes, was completed before the start of the 2011 school year. The high school siding work started this summer and will be done in mid-fall.

The grant money was matched by local donors and a loan from Cashmere Bank. The school paid back its loan this year with money from a $1 million, one-year capital projects levy approved by voters in November. The levy expires at the end of 2012.

“We checked off some of the repair items on our list,” Kline said. “Now we need to revamp these other buildings. We’re doing it holistically.”

The school has experienced budget problems in the last two years due to reductions in state funding. In addition to cutting the athletic program (the Booster Club has raised enough for fall sports), advanced placement physics is not funded, part of the middle school music program was cut and the library is closed for the school year. Those reductions could be reinstated if a donor steps forward.

Nonetheless, Kline is confident about the future.

“By next year, we will be much more stable. We are expecting growth in enrollment and stabilization in state funding,” she said. “With these state cuts, we’ve learned how to survive within our means. We’ve shifted staff around from some programs with fewer students to other programs with more students.”