Mercer Islanders for Sustainable Spending (MISS) recommends a NO vote to the $165,000,000 school bond. This is the first time we have opposed a school bond. No one likes to say no to schools, but this is a bad bond. It is expensive and it doesn’t address the issues facing our children.

Nothing in the $165,000,000 bond’s list of projects will address issues precipitating the decline of Island enrollment by 550 over the last 7 years. Moreover, there is general Community discontent with the Board’s focus on issues other than academic rigor such as screen-based learning in the elementary schools, little homework in the middle school and 25% of our students not being on track for college-level learning without remedial classes.

The $165,000,000 bond funds noncritical projects like an elevator in the admin building, refurbishing the stadium restrooms, refurbishing hallways, refinishing gym floors, painting, landscaping new and existing court yards, new lockers, “inclusive” changing rooms and bathrooms, etc. If your child was slipping academically, would you take a loan out to paint their room and buy them a new desk? These are all nice to have projects that will not improve education. Newer updated facilities do not produce better academic results. Our new Northwood Elementary scores lower than the other older elementary schools in five of the six academic categories measured by the State.

Interestingly, the more Islanders understand about the bond, the less they like it. The District’s Community Survey found that the more informed Islanders were the more skeptical of the need for a bond. “People who DID NOT attend the presentation are more likely to support the bond” 68% compared to 50% who DID attend the presentation.

As with the City’s 2018 Prop 1 Bond that was defeated with 57% of the vote, MISS chooses to analyze from the perspective of what you are voting on not your Total Property Tax Bill that includes eight other taxing authorities. You are voting on the “Local Schools” slice of the King County Assessors 2025 Property Tax pie chart that every homeowner receives as an insert to their tax bill.

It’s unmistakable that the District’s $165,000,000 bond will increase the $2,300,000 median homeowner’s local school tax by 40% in its first year and $23,730 over the 14-year life of the bond. Actually, the true cost of the bond is $231,000,000 when interest is included.

To imply that the overall tax will increase by a small amount is biased research because it doesn’t include the inevitable increases from the other nine taxing authorities that contribute to 72.5% of your tax bill. One should only focus on items the School Board has control over – Local School Taxes!!

Another contention people raise in my analysis is that I don’t point out the low rate our School District charges compared to other communities. Using a low tax rate to supposedly document proof of efficient management is simply wrong. Islanders don’t manage budgets according to rates. They manage their domestic and business budgets by actual dollar amounts. Rates are low because our home values are so high. A low rate times a high home value equals a large payment often requiring tradeoffs in other areas of a family’s budget.

Regardless, the low-rate argument is false when analyzed on a funding per student basis. Using the District’s list of 20 “Washington school districts with similar assessed values” from the consultants October 2024 presentation, our funding per student today is the second highest.

Following close behind this proposed bond is the City’s anticipated request for two bonds estimated to exceed $100,000,000 each AND levies to modernize the City’s water and sewer infrastructure. Hardly a spend thrift, even Councilmember Ted Weinberg “emphasized the need to find a balance between revitalizing schools and modernizing the City’s water and sewer infrastructure” at the Joint City-School Council meeting.

Moreover, the District’s $165,000,000 bond will be followed by additional bonds totaling $247,500,000 for the elementaries and a Cap/Tech Levy projected to increase 42% from $8,442,614 in 2028 to $12,000,000 in 2029 totaling another $170,919,910.

Passing the bond implicitly approves the current Board’s decisions. Let one of the byproducts of defeating this bond be a wake-up call to the Board to focus on academic rigor.

Finally, school policies are always emotional. Education policies impact on our most valuable possession. But compassion is making hard decisions. Vote NO on the $165,000,000 bond. Tell the Board to come back in November with a better proposition.

Mike Cero served on the Sunny Beam Board, Lakeridge PTA Board, Committee for Small Class Sizes and two City Council terms. He and his wife Susie have three adult children.