We urge citizens of Mercer Island to support the upcoming school facilities bond to fund the construction of new elementary schools, a new middle school, additional classrooms and science labs at the high school, and a potential future school site. This bond solves our urgent capacity crisis, raises our schools to competitive standards, and is cost-effective.
The School Board has developed a wise and considered facilities plan. The board and its 21st Century Facilities Planning Committee, between them, over the past 16 months, heard testimony at 17 public meetings, toured neighboring schools, combed through demographers’ reports, held lively discussions on school size, met with architects and experts on learning, school construction, cost estimates and bond sales. In short, they have done their homework to arrive at the best plan to support the needs of our students.
The capacity crisis in our schools is real. By the time the first new elementary school opens in 2015, the elementary schools will be operating at 143 percent of capacity, and IMS at 141 percent. Right now, we have 670 kids at West Mercer and 1,107 at IMS, schools built for 475 and 750, respectively. Learning is compromised, and we are running out of space to add portables. The board’s plan to replace existing schools with three new elementary schools built for 650 students each and a middle school for 1,100 students will accommodate expected capacity for the foreseeable future, and its search for an additional school site is prudent to provide for additional growth thereafter.
We must make our schools competitive! Our schools, re-modeled 17 and 18 years ago, are not built to the standards now seen in Bellevue, Issaquah and other local districts. While our academics are the strongest in the state, our facilities lag terribly. It’s no wonder we have underinvested compared to our neighbors. Other than Seattle, which depends on its commercial tax base, our school property tax rates, at $2.52 per $100,000 of assessed value, are the lowest of the 13 nearest school districts. With this bond, we will go to around $3.50, still well below most of our neighbors.
The board’s solution is cost-effective. Existing schools cannot be remodeled into two-story buildings, which are required to accommodate capacity. Some have suggested we build one elementary school and let the others live out their remaining lives. But to get all 750 students housed in portables by 2015 in our elementary schools into actual school buildings, we would have a single large school while our other students would be in non-competitive facilities that require expensive upgrades (e.g. boiler systems) to last another 10 years. Rebuilding the schools, one at a time, over the next eight years (the anticipated time for all four new schools to open), is the only solution that makes sense.
Please support the schools facilities bond measure. It is our legacy to our children and community.
Bill Hochberg and Carrie George
Co-chairs, Committee for Mercer Island Public Schools (CMIPS)
