Eight new buildings for a little more than a dollar.
That might be the campaign pitch for Auburn School District officials as they place a capital facilities bond before voters Nov. 8 that would replace six schools and build two new ones.
Cindi Blansfield, the district’s assistant superintendent for business and operations, said they accepted the recommendations of their more than 60-member ad hoc committee to replace five elementary schools built between 1945 and 1965 – Terminal Park, Dick Scobee, Pioneer, Chinook and Lea Hill – along with Olympic Middle School. The latter building opened in 1957.
The $456 million levy, which would add an estimated $1.03 per $1,000 of assessed property value, also would fund two new, 650-student elementary schools. Blansfield said ASD has not procured land for either building, but one would be constructed on the north end of the district, the other on the south side.
“The facilities ad hoc committee, after looking at the data, identified that we needed to address growth in the area,” she said, adding that the new buildings would reduce class sizes at other schools.
The latest bond measure requires at least 60 percent of the vote to pass.
Vicki Alonzo, public information officer for the district, said ASD has grown by 1,074 students during the last five years. District officials, she said, expect 1,670 more students in the next five years. In addition, Alonzo said providing full-day kindergarten and state-supported lower-class sizes have resulted in 102 portables throughout the district, and some schools are utilizing hallways and closets as classrooms.
Alonzo said ASD assembled another committee of community members in 2008 that recommended replacing those schools along with Auburn High School. But because of the Great Recession, Alonzo said district officials elected to focus on Auburn High because it was “most in need of replacement.”
That $110 million modernization and reconstruction bond passed with more than 62 percent in favor between King and Pierce counties in November 2012. All three of ASD’s high schools – Auburn (2014), Auburn Riverside (1995) and Auburn Mountainview (2005) – were constructed within a 20-year span.
“We are very fortunate to be in a community that is very supportive of education,” Blansfield said.
Including outstanding bonds and a maintenance-and-operations levy, Blansfield said a successful new bond would increase taxpayers’ obligation to an estimated $6.86 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
Alonzo said district officials examined modernizing its six aging schools to current learning standards but determined that would cost more than 70 percent of building a new school. The average age of those buildings is 58.8 years.
“This bond is the essentials,” Blansfield said. “There are no extras and no frills.”
She noted that all six schools are eligible for more than $79 million from the state for a rebuild because of their ages.
