Why No

1.     Quality of MISD Education:   Any mention of how this $200,000,000 million bond issue will improve the quality of the education offered by MISD is conspicuously absent from the District’s campaign mailing and the Voter’s Pamphlet statements in favor of the $200 Million Bond.   The focus on a massive building program by the MISD Superintendent and School Board is misplaced when the quality of the MISD education appears to have declined under the Gary Plano regime.

2.     Useful Life Existing Middle and Elementary Schools. The existing Middle and Elementary Schools were complete rebuilt in 1994/2000 and 1995 respectively for a 50 year useful life.   The remaining useful lives of these structures are 34 and 35 years respectively.   They were constructed for the HVAC and IT systems to be able to be readily upgraded. They meet current codes according to Dr. Plano.    MISD’s statement that these schools “are at the end of their lifespans” is an unmitigated misrepresentation.   Why tear down perfectly functional buildings at enormous cost and displacement of students and faculty??   Other Washington School Districts don’t do so.

3.     Overcrowding:   If overcrowding is the problem which requires solving, why not build a fourth elementary school and add a wing to the Middle School (for which ample space exists)??   Provided MISD enrollment projections are correct (and given its many liberties with facts, its projections should be carefully examinted by an independent qualified person/firm), there a many, myself included,  who value the quality of the education Mercer Island Students should be receiving who would heartily support a targeted bond committed to solving that problem intelligently rather than in a slipshod manner.

4.     No Slush Fund for Plano & the MISD Board:   Since the Bond Issue as written does not commit MISD to do what it advertises is may do, it amounts to nothing more than a slush fund for Gary Plano and his complaisant School Board (other than Mr. Myerson) to spend how ever they wish without any approval of the taxpayers.

VOTE NO—NOT THIS BOND.

Jake Jacobson