OK, Vashon, it is time to show that vision thing, thinking outside the box, the “keep Vashon weird” spirit.

We need a new high school, we need a new health center, and we need a new library — or at least we voted to pay for one. And, coincidentally, we have a huge and beautifully maintained industrial facility that needs to be recycled. We all dutifully do our recycling — the newspapers and bottles, right? Well, we now have the opportunity to do much more meaningful recycling.

All across the country, communities are struggling with how to fill dead K-Mart stores, defunct malls and industrial hulks. We have a golden opportunity to create a world-class community facility and save ourselves some money. But it is going to take some serious vision.

The farthest out of the box is the idea of building the new high school at K2. We all have the notion that a traditional high school is a sprawling campus of one-story buildings that includes endless athletic facilities and a theater. That notion really only dates to the 1960s and the growth of suburbia, and we now find that it is more expensive than we want to pay for. The $48 million that is being proposed for moving the high school to K2 is $27 million less expensive than the bond issue that was just defeated.

That is serious money on our little Island. The K2 building offers the cheapest space we’ll ever have for all kinds of things.

We are a small community, and we need to think in terms of shared community facilities if we want a great high school, a good theater, a pool, day care, senior center and athletic facilities in addition to a modern health center and a new library.

Perhaps the school district can’t afford to be 100 percent independent and needs to be part of a broader, all-Island facilities planning process. We can’t have each of our Island organizations “stove piping,” that is, working in isolation to build their own facilities and perhaps duplicating efforts.

The numbers that the K2 developers have presented will have to be closely examined for accuracy, and it will take a good architect and builder to pull it off. But most importantly, it will require a good dose of Vashon weirdness — the willingness to take a bit of a risk to do something different from Issaquah or Kent. I feel that this proposal deserves serious consideration.

And it isn’t entirely about cost. As a former teacher, I feel that a cutting-edge redesign of a large portion of K2 for the high school could result in an exciting educational facility.

The technology infrastructure could be great, the classrooms would be big and bright, and the interior spaces could be designed for more interaction. The high school could be an integral part of the community rather than separate from it. I see a place where kids want to come and hang out because of all the facilities that could exist there.

The health center and library would become the other two anchors of this Island facility.

Highline Medical would love to have a spacious, well-designed health center at K2. The King County Library System would build a cool architectural statement with lots of parking — all without paving over more of Ober Park. I’d encourage the developers to exclude any retail in the interest of maintaining the viability of Vashon town.

I certainly acknowledge some of the problems that have been raised.

In a perfect world, the K2 building would be located half a mile south and east of where it is, nearer the existing school facilities. Or it would be located half a mile north, nearer to the center of Vashon town. It might require a new stop sign and slower speeds between town and Center.

It will certainly change the flow of life and the character of the Island. However, the geography and flow of the Island have changed many times.

At several points in the 30-some years I’ve been here, there were people screaming that the character of the Island was being destroyed. The Thriftway mall was built, the library was moved to Ober, the big box lumber yard was built where there had been raspberries, Sound Food opened, then closed, then opened again. The old hardware store became The Hardware Store Restaurant.

I’m guessing that many readers will find this idea of the high school at K2 lunacy. Many parents who want their kids to have the same high school experience they themselves had will find it heresy.

I won’t argue that a K2 project that includes the high school, health center and library is perfect, that everyone will be pleased with all the results. I do think that we have a chance to make this Island even better than it already is, and that we should apply all of our creativity and imagination to considering it and perhaps taking a risk.

— Steve Abel is a retired teacher and small business owner.