By ANNELI FOGT

Editor

At a special meeting last Wednesday, the Vashon Island School District board tentatively set the Phase 2 bond amount for the February election at $26.9 million, including money for new athletic facilities at the high school and improvements to district buildings.

The district’s proposed plan includes a new high school gym, an artificial turf field and a new track. The nearly $27 million also includes scheduled maintenance at all three schools, the renovation of the high school’s Building K and replacement of district service buildings.

The bond, if passed, will allocate $17,952,000 to build a new gym at Vashon High School, complete with a regulation basketball court and new locker rooms. The existing gym will be renovated to provide storage space and restrooms.

For the high school track, the tentative plan calls for $4,836,000 to renovate it and bring it up to state standards for home meets, but it will be left it in its current orientation. The current boys’ locker room will become bathrooms, and the existing bleachers will be made ADA accessible. There is no money included for a new concession stand.

Additionally, $2 million will be allocated to replacement and renovation projects at all three schools, as will $550,000 to renovate Building K for the district’s StudentLink program.

The last $3,583,000 will be used for new service buildings for district employees.

The tentative plan was presented by board chair Laura Wishik as a possible compromise between all of the board members’ wishes. She said at the meeting that there is a spread among members about how much each is comfortable putting in the bond, and she acknowledged that it is impossible to make everyone happy, both board and community members.

“We are all going to be uncomfortable,” Wishik said. “The decision we come to needs to be tolerable for all, or most, board members.”

She went on to say that she does not like her compromise, as she wanted more, but can tolerate it. She and board member Kathy Jones both called for a bond amount closer to $30 million, while board members Dan Chasan, Bob Hennessey and Steve Ellison wanted to go no higher than $25 million.

“It makes sense to re-orient the field; it makes sense to have bathrooms and new bleachers, but I’m getting the feeling that won’t happen,” Wishik said as she presented her plan.

Chasan, Hennessey and Ellison all voiced their concerns, saying that they believe the further above $25 million the bond goes, the harder it will be to pass in February.

“I think that if whatever we put out doesn’t pass, we’re out another year,” Ellison said. “It gets tougher and tougher to pass the further north of $25 million we go. My confidence is that it will pass below $25 million.”

Chasan said that he liked Wishik’s process for coming up with the plan, but still was not willing to approve an amount as high as $26.9 million.

Hennessey did eventually say that he “very much” liked the idea as it showed the community that the board was being “thrifty.”

“We have a community of thrifty people who like to reuse and recycle,” Hennessey said. “I don’t like to strip (all the facilities) down and replace (them). This proposal shows we’re being thrifty. It’s good enough to do what we need. We don’t have to solve it all right now.”

VISD Superintendent Michael Soltman told The Beachcomber on Friday that despite the comments and discussion at the meeting, four of the five board members indicated it “was a number and package they could likely support.”

The Vashon School District’s quarterly Soundings newsletter for fall reported that a taxpayer with a house assessed at $500,000 would see a monthly tax increase of $18.33, and an annual tax increase of $220 with a $25 million bond. The numbers jump to a $26.67 monthly increase and $320 annual increase with a $32.5 million bond.

A homeowner with a $500,000 house is currently paying $1,914 annually ($159.50 per month) in school district-related taxes.

Upon hearing that a full renovation and rebuild of the bleachers to include bathrooms and a concession stand is not in the proposed plan, several members of Vashon’s athletic community who attended the meeting spoke out. Many criticized the board for doing a “cheap job” and for not doing the job right when it has the chance. Islander and high school track record-holder Foss Miller said that the school’s current wooden bleachers were built in the 1950s and are “soaked in creosote.” He said he is concerned that the rain will wash the chemical into the ground and pollute it.

“It will be a toxic waste dump of a field,” Miller said. “You will lose the whole athletic community on this by doing a cheap job.”

Islander Todd Pearson, who holds the VHS record for the 100-yard dash, said that he feels the board is “shrinking away from doing the right thing.”

“There’s not a lot of actual data of what voters think,” Pearson said. “You’re all splitting hairs. Every time I ask you you tell me what they (the community) think, you don’t know. Whatever public work you have to do, do it well.”

Islander Desiree Nelson, a mother of VHS athletes, took issue with the fact that there would be no new concession stand. She said that the current stand brings in roughly $1,700 per night during football season, but barely passed a health inspection this year.

“There’s no hot water, the grill shuts itself off, it’s awful,” Nelson said. “All of the repairs that have been made up to this point have been done by clubs. If you’re going to do this, do it right.”

The additions that were being considered, such as a different track orientation and overhaul of the bleachers, would cost an additional $500,000 to $800,000, according to Soltman.

“At the ‘master planning’ level, a fair range is probably somewhere from $500,000 to $800,000 difference depending upon how much it would cost to rehab the bleachers and add ADA accessibility,” Soltman said Friday. “Other unknowns are the costs of lighting or savings from reusing lighting, possible costs of infill material, etc. The estimate has to be a range given all of the unknowns at this point.”

In other news for the February election, the board is discussing the renewal of the capital technology levy and is split between whether to increase the current $900,000 levy to make it account for inflation or to raise it to $1 million or more.

With the calculation for inflation, the levy would go from $900,000 annually to roughly $920,000.

The King County Assessor’s Office reports that the Vashon school district levy makes up 30.84 percent of the total levy amounts paid by Vashon property owners. Currently, a taxpayer with a home assessed at $500,000 pays $200 annually for the levy.

Both Wishik and Soltman told The Beachcomber that the bond and levy decisions are in flux and could change before Nov. 19, the date when the board needs to make final decisions in order to have a February election.

“The amount could change with further discussion, Soltman said in a Friday email. “However, there was another board forum (Thursday) night with lots more public input, and I know there will be more discussion at our meeting … that could lead to a different result.”

The board has one regularly scheduled public meeting on Thursday before it is expected to make a final decision at a special Nov. 19 meeting.