MV schools to ask
voters for $46.4 million
Bond would pay for elementary school projects, remodeling of high school gym

By JENNIFER CARTER
Staff Writer

The Mount Vernon School Board voted unanimously Wednesday to put a $46.4 million bond proposition to school district voters in April.

The bond would pay for construction of a seventh elementary school, replacement of Madison Elementary and remodeling and addition of classrooms at Mount Vernon High's aging gymnasium and field house.

If passed, the April bond proposition would increase property taxes by about 57 cents per $1,000 assessed value, or about $143 on a $250,000 home, according to district estimates. For a $250,000 home, the increase on top of existing bond debt would bring the total of school bond's annual tax bill to about $575.

It was a "moment of truth," Board President Charlie Guildner said Wednesday before calling for the bond resolution vote.

Board members said extensive work by a district facilities committee, the board, administrators, and architecture and engineering consultants made it clear the cost estimates for projects that would be funded by the bond are based on solid information.

"I like the process, and it makes me quite comfortable saying, 'yes'," board member Robert Coffey said before the vote.

School Board members and district administrators seem eager to show they've done their homework.

Voters in the district last approved a $33 million bond in 2001 for major remodeling and new construction projects at Mount Vernon High School. There was public outcry in 2003 when it became clear that costs for the projects had far overrun what many voters expected and fewer projects would be completed with the bond dollars.

The events led to the resignation of Superintendent Mack Armstrong, whom Carl Bruner replaced in 2004. A consultant hired by the district to determine what went wrong concluded in part that the district didn't hire enough experts to set accurate cost estimates before construction began.

This time around, the district has spent about $100,000 on architecture and engineering fees and professional cost estimates, Superintendent Bruner said.

It's an unusual move for a school district, he said, but it makes sense in light of the past.

Board members said they were glad to have ample research.

"It's never easy to go to the voters and ask them to participate," Board member LuAnne Burkhart said before the bond resolution vote.

But Burkhart and Guildner echoed Coffey's confidence in the work of the facilities committee, a panel of community members who studied the district's long-term facility needs last year.

The first projects would include construction of an elementary school, the district's seventh, on a 10-acre parcel on East Division Street near the entrance to the Skagit Highlands development. District growth projections show a need for that additional elementary school in the district within three years. Plans call for the building to be completed by fall of 2009.

The high school gym and field house improvements would also be completed by fall 2009 under the plan. The gym, built in the early 1950s, and the field house, built in the early 1970s, are in poor shape, Bruner has said. Construction would take care of roof leaks, poor ventilation, mechanical and electrical problems and add three classrooms.

Madison Elementary would be replaced by fall 2010 at the earliest, Bruner said. The school has mechanical, electrical and structural problems, and the facilities committee recommended replacing it with a new building designed to hold 550 students, 100 more than the current school. The replacement building would be built on Madison's current site, so the East Division elementary school, once completed in 2009, would house Madison students in the interim.

In addition to the $46.4 million from the proposed bond, the district is eligible for about $9.9 million in state matching funds for the projects, Bruner said.

One district resident asked the board to put off any bond proposition prior to Wednesday's board vote. Richard Bowyer said district taxpayers can't afford a rate increase.

"The tax burden is getting onerous," he said.

The district is already looking beyond this year's bond proposition to future needs.

"It's the start of an ongoing facilities renewal effort," Bruner said of the current proposition.

The district is predicting a need for a $20 million bond in 2013 and a $21 million bond in 2017. Those would fund additional projects identified in the facilities study, possibly including an eighth elementary school, added capacity at the middle school and high school levels and renovation or replacement of Mount Vernon High School's Old Main and Agriculture buildings.

The district's estimates of what bond debt repayment needs would be for all three bonds show the total tax rate in the district, including bond and maintenance and operations levy rates, could be held steady through 2017, Bruner said. District estimates put the rate at about $5.03 per $1,000 assessed value, up from $4.63 per $1,000 assessed value in 2006.

Jennifer Carter can be
reached at 360-416-2147 or
jcarter@skagitvalleyherald.com.