With ballots in the mail today, Jan. 21, Sequim School District officials and supporters have until Tuesday, Feb. 10, to anxiously await to know whether their re-crafted construction bond will get voters’ approval.
Since April, district officials have been narrowing and re-prioritizing the initial construction bond proposal of $154 million to $49.2 million. The previous bond failed to get the required super majority of 60 percent to pass, but on a second try district officials hope to propose something the voters can and will support.
“This whole bond proposal is based on our ability to listen,” Sequim School District Superintendent Kelly Shea said. “Hopefully we have heard from our community correctly and honestly.”
Bonds issued would be repaid over a 20-year period, costing the taxpayer 63 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Coupled with the education programs and operations levy of $1.60, the total local schools tax rate in 2016 would be $2.23 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
“We’re in the bottom five percent of all the local school districts receiving taxpayers’ assistance,” Citizens for Sequim Schools chairman Jim Stoffer said.
Having a relatively low local schools tax rate, Sequim School District’s 2015 tax rate is less than its neighboring cities including Port Angeles, Chimacum and Port Townsend, according to a statistic table supplied by Sequim School District Business Manager Brian Lewis.
Re-prioritizing
Following the failure of April’s bond proposal and in order to identify and help prioritize the school district’s needs, Shea set out on a “journey” to specifically reach out to individuals that opposed the bond.
The reasons for lack of support greatly varied, but through countless conversations Shea noticed common themes including lack of project prioritization, uncertainty of the district’s ability to manage the amount of funds and simply that $154 million was beyond the capacity of the community.
Keeping the reoccurring themes in mind, district officials determined their priorities as improving the district’s structural environment, safety and security, as well as creating space to accommodate current students.
“We do have to keep our eye down the road so if we do grow, we’ll be able to accommodate more kids and we always have to make sure that we have space available,” Shea said. “But, in this bond we’re not focused on the potential for growth, but the kids we have today.”
Room to learn
In response to the number of students and class size demands, district officials have continued to budget for more portable buildings that act as temporary classrooms.
The Sequim School District bought two portables last summer and are prepared to buy an additional two before the next school year. Together the portables create eight new classrooms – adding to the 17 portable classrooms the district already has.
More than half the district’s portables have been in place for more than 20 years, Shea said.
“The portables that we are going to purchase at the start of the next school year, we have budgeted $330,000,” Shea said. “We’ve been buying those out of our normal annual operating budget, so if we have $330,000 to buy these portables that means we don’t have that to spend on technology, new curriculum or to invest in our tennis courts.”
Additionally, when it comes to space constraints, school district officials are grappling with the McCleary Decision that mandates full-day kindergarten by 2016.
Accommodating full-day kindergarten will require up to six additional classrooms, Shea said. Also, the decision reduces grades K-3 class size to 17 students – requiring the district to supply an extra 14 classrooms.
With the Washington Class Size Reduction Measure (Initiative 1351) for grades K-12, district officials aren’t “only trying to build space to accommodate the kids we have today, but to put us in a position to adapt to whatever changes occur in the future,” Shea said.
Included projects
The estimated total cost to complete the identified projects is $53.6 million, but district officials also plan to use $4.3 million state match grants to help with the construction of a new elementary school, four additional classrooms and a gym at Greywolf, six high school science classrooms and new high school band and choir classrooms, update a district base kitchen and warehouse and maintenance facility and renovate space for Olympic Peninsula Academy.
Projects included in the previous bond, but trimmed from the district’s new proposal, will be shelved until later or some may never be revisited.
“There are other elements of the last bond proposal that we probably won’t pursue, but there are other elements that we’ll have to pursue,” Shea said. “We have to do something about our track because it’s becoming unusable; we have to do something about the tennis courts because they are unusable; we have to do something about our gymnasium because it doesn’t meet today’s building code standards.”
Shea will keep his attention on the projects cut from the previous bond proposal, but that still need to be addressed.
“Some of those things can be done through a construction bond in the future,” he said. “Some of those things we might be able to find different solutions for … a partnership with the city, county or private sector. We’re going to have to look at the things on the list and ask ourselves is there another way to accomplish these besides just putting them in a school construction bond.”
Support
Given the roughly 21,000 registered voters within the Sequim School District, school staff created fact-sheets, maintained bond information on its website, increased social media and used YouTube to elevate awareness and supply information to supplement Shea’s ongoing conversations. Still, Shea said, word-of-mouth seemed to be the most effective way to get a dialogue going.
“It’s affirmed how important it is to listen to people,” Shea said, reflecting on the bond process. “To know and respect the values of the community in which you serve is something that I knew, but this process has reaffirmed that.”
Leading the Citizens for Sequim Schools, Stoffer also has revamped the campaign’s approach and increased the use of social media and public presence via platforms such as KSQM.
Falling back on his 31 years with the U.S. Coast Guard and thus his continual interaction with the public during that time, Stoffer said talking with and helping to educate people on the bond comes easily to him.
The construction bond has received support from a number of organizations and individuals, including, but not limited to, Olympic Medical Center, both state representatives Kevin Van De Wege and Steve Tharinger, Clallam Economic Development Council, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, City of Sequim Mayor Candace Pratt, Sequim City Manager Steve Burkett and County Commissioner Jim McEntire.
“I support this measure on the ballot,” McEntire said. “It’s a responsible measure and something that I’ve always thought to be true is that a good school system is important for a good economy. I think it’s worthy of everybody’s consideration.”
McEntire commends the district’s board of directors and officials for “rolling up their sleeves” after the first bond failed and listening to the public to try to balance the needs with the amount the community will and can afford.
Sequim School District’s construction bond proposal
New elementary school $29,807,000
Greywolf Elementary additions $7,242,000
Sequim High School additions $9,258,000
District base kitchen remodel $2,130,000
Helen Haller Elem. renovations $1,907,884
Sequim High School renovations $1,746,600
SCS/OPA renovations $829,280
Sequim Community School demo $666,264
(State matching funds) (-$4,322,392)
Total $49,264,636
