Last week, Marilyn Oswald, the McMurray Middle School track coach, stood before the Vashon Island School Board and politely made a request.

She nodded towards the 40 girls and boys who had followed her into the meeting — a little more than half of the 70 middle schoolers who had turned out for track this year — and noted their great enthusiasm for the sport. “It would be nice if they had a new track in their career,” she said.

She also asked some of the students how they’d describe the track. “Stupid,” one said. “Bad,” said another. Others just laughed. As political theater goes, it was pretty spot-on.

Indeed, Oswald made her point, and it’s one worth considering. When part two of the bond measure — a $3.5 million proposal for a new track and synthetic-turf field — failed last year, the school board said it would return to the issue and try to hammer out a new solution.

Clearly, they’ve got their hands full overseeing the construction of a $47.7 million high school campus. But perhaps there’s an opportunity hidden in that high school project as it gets under way.

Consider this: If board members can contain costs on the new school and resist pressure from the contractor to spend every dollar allocated to the project, they might find enough savings to rebuild the high school’s sorry track. Wouldn’t that be a sweet deal?

Vashon’s track is a mess. It’s also a sinkhole for money. The district spent $13,000 laying down new cinder in February. By April, large standing puddles were once again making vast portions of it unusable.

“The track does not drain. It’s irretrievably lost and beyond repair,” said Bob Hennessey, a school board member known for not mincing words. As for the money spent earlier this year on new cinder, “It was essentially wasted, near as I can tell,” he said.

Some community members might cry foul if money meant for the high school building went toward the track. But another way to look at it is this: A new track is the reward for eagle-eye budget monitoring, a powerful incentive to keep a lid on those pesky change-orders that drive costs up in a construction project.

Because of the state of Vashon’s track, those 70 middle school students had to travel off-Island for every one of their six track meets, often leaving school around noon to make it to the event.

Oswald put forward a challenge — a new track before those students graduate from high school. We encourage board members to make it their goal as well.