Mercer Island High School (MIHS) senior Connor Auld stood front and center and relayed a story about how deficient the HVAC system is at the high school.

Students joke that on some days, the classrooms are cold and sometimes they’re hot.

“Although there have been fantastic updates on the schools, they’re incredibly old,” said Auld, noting that the high school was built in 1954 and Islander Middle School was erected in 1958.

While addressing the crowd following the Mercer Island School District (MISD) bond information meeting for elementary families on Feb. 27 in the Island Park Elementary School gym, Auld said that learning has come a long way since the ’50s and when renovations occurred in the ’90s.

Major changes will come to Island schools if a $165 million bond measure is passed this April. The bond is set for the King County special election ballot on April 22; ballots will be sent to residents on April 5.

According to MISD Superintendent Dr. Fred Rundle at the meeting, the bond requires 60% approval to pass and needs to reach a 40% threshold of residents voting to pass.

That 28-year-old high school HVAC system is one of copious infrastructure projects that the district aims to address with the bond, which has a millage rate of $1.89 per $1,000 of assessed property value. On Jan. 16, the Mercer Island School Board voted unanimously, 5-0, to place the bond on the ballot.

Auld, who also spoke of improvements to the MIHS commons area, updated lockers rooms and more, passionately noted about the antiquated high school and Islander Middle School (IMS) buildings: “They need to be remodeled to reflect the modern teaching gifts, to give teachers the power to actually teach the way they wish to. We need to reflect who we are as a community today, not who we were in the 1950s.”

Islanders last passed a school bond in 2014 by 74%. The $98.8 million bond focused on constructing Northwood Elementary, replacing half of IMS and adding 12 MIHS classrooms.

According to a previous Reporter story, 2025 bond projects include completing the 2014 project and building a new multi-use performance space for IMS; renovating parts of MIHS and Crest Center, such as the 200/300 wings, two corridors, a courtyard, locker rooms and the front of the performance arts center, and replacing the fire alarm; and accessibility updates at the administration building. Also on tap are concept designs for three older elementary schools, and reimbursing the Capital/Technology Levy Fund for concept design work completed in 2024.

Rundle, who was joined by Brandy Fox of the district’s capital projects team at the meeting, noted about bond information: “Our purpose is really just to present facts. It is not our role as school district employees or contracted employees to stand in front of you to tell you how to vote. I just encourage everyone to vote.”

Citizens for Mercer Island Public Schools (CMIPS), a political arm of bond advocators, notes that property taxes on $2.2 million homes will increase by less than 7%, while the opposition, Mercer Islanders for Sustainable Spending (MISS), states on its website that those taxes will rise by 40%.

MISS also states that the bond fails to address the declining academic performance, the entire funding picture and problematic school board oversight, according to its website.

“We have tremendous kids in this school district and they come from tremendous families. And our educators, we all feel extremely just humbled by the opportunity to do this work in this school district,” Rundle said.

On the tax increase front, Rundle rolled out the district’s numbers: the bond package would increase the tax rate by 45 cents per $1,000 — from $1.44 per $1,000 to $1.89 per $1,000. That equates to about $38 per month on a $1 million home, and then reaches toward the $1,000 figure on an average-priced home of about $2.2 million.

“If this passes, we stacked the new bond on top of the existing bond, and so that over the course, we’ll pay off both debts at the same time without bouncing tax rates. So the key is to try not to create unpredictability for the taxpayer and to try to smooth that down,” he said of trying to flatten the tax rates.

Also following the district information meeting, CMIPS member Kim Florence said that more than 200 Islanders have endorsed the bond through CMIPS and the nearly 30-member organization — which includes Auld — has more than 20 donors on its side.

Florence appreciates the enthusiasm she’s witnessed from residents in getting the bond passed.

“I’ve really enjoyed meeting my counterparts at the different schools on this Island and seen the passion that this school community has for our district and for our students,” said Florence, who echoed Rundle’s sentiment about presenting facts.

She added that the time is now to pass another bond.

For more information, visit the district’s bond webpage at: https://tinyurl.com/2j7vmuxb.

The Feb. 27 meeting is available on the district’s YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@misdcommunications9957/videos.