Piping and heating systems in Auburn High School’s 300 and 400 halls are old, don’t work, and have to be dug up and replaced.
Boilers at Rainier Middle School and Auburn Riverside High School take too long to heat the buildings when the cold arrives, so kids shiver in 60 degrees-and-below classrooms. Roofs throughout the district need repair, and poor energy efficiency siphons precious dollars from district coffers.
Those issues represent the tiniest fraction of the maintenance problems out there.
Recently, the Auburn School District worked closely with a community steering committee to evaluate its aging schools and buildings and complete an in-depth Facilities Master Plan that identified immediate needs at 19 schools and six support buildings.
On Nov. 3, the district will ask voters to approve a $46.4 million capital improvements levy to fund the necessary repairs and essential improvements.
The time to act, said Auburn School District Superintendent Kip Herren, is now.
“The longer we wait to repair the buildings, the more costly they will be,” Herren said. “I like to say that the public owns these facilities, and we are not doing anything more than fixing, mending and repairing.”
The total local school tax rate, including previously approved measures and the proposed new measure, is estimated to be a level rate of $4.93 per $1,000 assessed valuation in 2010. The tax rate is 55 cents more per $1,000 from the 2009 rate, which equates to $165 on a $300,000 home. The total local school tax rate has dropped from $5.48 in 2002 to $4.38 in 2009.
List to fix
The funds, collected over six years, would allow the district to:
• Replace aging roofs and obsolete equipment; provide energy-saving conservation improvements; and replace deteriorating utility lines;
• Provide seismic structural upgrades; ensure safe vehicle and bus access; upgrade emergency power systems; and fix fire alarm and fire sprinkler systems to ensure the safety of all students;
• Fix heating and ventilation systems; and improve water quality, health rooms, restrooms and locker rooms for student health;
• Replace aging equipment and furniture; and maintain classroom instructional spaces;
• Fix plumbing, electrical, lighting and sound systems; improve kitchen safety; and design office and storage areas for greater efficiencies in facility operations;
• Upgrade lock systems and improve surveillance and intrusion detection systems for school security;
• Create building access for persons with disabilities;
• Repair playgrounds, playfields and athletic facilities for community and school use.
Last spring the district ran with the capital levy a bond that would have paid for the replacement of aging buildings, including Auburn High School. But this go around, the district will run only the capital levy; it will delay the bond until the economy perks up.
Cuts still hurt
The district is trying to deal with a $6 million shortfall brought about by drastic cuts in the funding the state provides from Initiative 728, a reduction from $6.4 million in 2008-2009 to $370,000 in 2009-2010. Those funds paid for about 49 teachers, allowing the district to have the class size that teachers, community and parents felt were necessary.
“We made $6 million in reductions out of the $24 million levy we receive from local levy taxes. What we took out of that $6 million was central office, transportation, maintenance people, teaming time. Administrators took pay cuts. That means we had to reduce our levy dollars and what they are funding by 25 percent,” Herren said.
Ratios maintained
The district prioritized class size and retaining teachers.
“…We need this boost of capital dollars over the next six years to protect the taxpayers’ investment,” Herren added. “Leaky roofs, poor ventilation, boiler problems are expensive to continually repair. The capital levy will provide needed repairs across the district at our schools that will take away us having to spend those operation dollars in a situation where we might have to choose between a boiler or a teacher.”
For a complete listing of repairs by school, go to the district Web site at www.auburn.wednet.edu and click on the capital improvements levy link.
