Vashon Island School Super-intendent Michael Soltman stood at Vashon’s main intersection Friday night, urging one passerby after another to support the two school bond measures that will come before voters when ballots are mailed out next week.

A few demurred, saying they thought Vashon property owners couldn’t afford an increase in their taxes. But mostly, people were receptive, and many took the “Yes for kids!” buttons that Soltman pressed into the hands of anybody who would accept one.

“Educated youth? Why would anyone be against that?” one woman asked as she strode past.

As the school district attempts its second run at a measure that would rebuild significant portions of the Island’s aging high school, both the climate and the campaign seem decidedly different.

The proposal is more modest this time around. Instead of seeking $75.5 million for a far-reaching rebuild of the high school campus and its athletic facilities, a measure that failed at the polls in March 2009, the district is asking for $51.2 million in two separate measures.

Proposition 1 — a $47.7 million proposal — would, like the previous bond measure, enable the district to build a new, state-of-the-art classroom building. It would also pave the way for several other improvements, including a top-to-bottom remodel of the high school’s current classroom building, the demolition of two buildings that the district considers particularly unworkable and an upgrade to more energy-efficient heating systems in all three public schools.

The second proposition, a $3.5 million measure that can pass only if the first one does, would replace the current track and field with upgraded surfaces, enabling the track — now often marked with puddles and potholes — to drain properly and the stadium field to be used all yearlong.

Gone from the proposal are renovations to the stadium’s grandstand, a new gymnasium, an overhaul of the existing gym and a remodel of the high school’s WPA-built brick building to house the district’s office. District staff would remain at Chautauqua Elementary School, in offices that would be upgraded under the current proposal.

Some say the tax hit for these two new propositions is still too much on Vashon, where property taxes are already high and many Islanders continue to struggle financially. The last proposal would have cost homeowners around $1.91 per $1,000 of assessed value — or $895 for a $450,000 home. If the two current measures pass, the levy rate would be $1.51 per $1,000 of assessed value — or $680 for a $450,000 home.

“There’s a whole element on this Island that can’t afford this,” said George Wright, an artist who has lived on Vashon 34 years and whose two children both graduated from Vashon High School.

Wright, who co-wrote the statement opposing the measure in the Voter’s Guide, said her husband volunteers at the Vashon Maury Community Food Bank, where he sees the degree of hardship on the Island.

“Even those who rent will have a hard time if the bond passes, because landlords will just pass on the higher costs to their tenants,” she said.

But others praise the district for coming back with a more modest proposal after the last one failed. May Gerstle, an Islander active in civic affairs, opposed the March 2009 measure — her first vote ever against a school measure — because she felt that a $75.5 million bond was too much for Vashon property owners to carry. This time around, she’s an active supporter; she serves on the campaign’s communications committee and has campaigned actively for the measure.

“I feel that the school board listened to the public’s concerns,” she said, explaining her decision to support the current measure.

“I think this will involve an investment,” she added. “But of all the investments this community is asked to make, it’s probably the most important.”

For several years, the school district and a few different school boards have been working to tee up a bond that would fund a new high school campus. The current high school campus is an archipelago of buildings spread out across the grounds, making it what administrators call a “porous” place — not very secure in the post-Columbine era, where student safety has become paramount.

Classrooms are cramped. Teachers have little room for planning or meeting. The infrastructure doesn’t support some of the technology teachers in other districts have come to depend on.

Particularly frustrating to the district is the main classroom building — otherwise known as Building A — three large octagons connected to a central area that was designed 40 years ago, when open classrooms were vogue. Today, it works poorly, they say: Each time students leave a classroom, they open an exterior door, letting warm air out and cool air in.

Brian Carter, the lead architect for the project, whose firm Integrus has developed the conceptual designs, said he’s put forward a new 40,000-square-foot classroom building that he believes is modest — yet not so modest that it won’t stand the test of time. His marching orders, he said, were to come up with a project that was a five or a six on a scale of one to 10.

“We’re aiming for a great learning environment … that’s very durable and reduces maintenance and operation needs over time. In other words, a nicely done bread and butter solution, which is what we heard loud and clear from the community,” said Carter, an Islander whose daughter goes to Vashon High School and whose son graduated from there.

Backers of the proposal also say they believe Islanders will be employed by the building project, should the bond pass on Feb. 8. Eric Gill, the district’s capital projects manager, said the district was successful in getting state approval to award the bid not to contractors that offer up the lowest bid but to firms that seem best qualified.

This enables the district to then make sure the general contractor directs sub-contracts to Island firms, Gill said. “It was the best way we knew how to direct work to Island laborers,” he said.

The campaign this time around is much quieter than it was two years ago, when letters to the editor filled the pages of The Beachcomber and the district routinely held tours of the high school.

The district doesn’t have a paid campaign manager, which they did the last time. Placards in support of the measure have just started cropping up, a week or two before voters are expected to receive their ballots. Indeed, said John “Oz” Osborne, a former school board member chairing the campaign, the committee consciously decided to undertake a quieter and quicker campaign this time.

It made sense to do so, he said: The Vashon electorate has already been through one campaign and is fairly well-educated about the high school’s architectural deficiencies. What’s more, he said, with ballots for the mail-in election due Feb. 8, the committee felt it couldn’t start until after the holidays.

But those involved in last year’s effort also felt it made some sense strategically to shorten the length of the campaign. Last year, he said, the campaign was waged in the pages of The Beachcomber, with dueling commentaries that confounded the voters.

“We were in the weeds too much,” he said.

Backers of the plan say they believe it will fly this time. “I’m very hopeful,” said Susan Hanson, principal of the high school.

But some Islanders say they’ve still not decided, confused in part by some of the numbers that are being tossed around in the final weeks of the campaign and uncertain if an Island with declining enrollment can afford a school of this size.

Gayle Sommers, an Islander active in civic affairs, voted against the last bond measure — the first time she’d ever said no to a school-related measure. Now, she’s on the fence, knowing, on the one hand, that a new school is needed but worried, on the other, about escalating property taxes.

“I’m wrestling with it,” she said.

“We need to … make sure kids are getting what they need,” she added. “But we really have to be wise with our money. At this point, I’m not sure which way I’ll vote.”