Preliminary results of the Proposition 1 election show 53.5 percent of votes in favor of the Vashon Island School District’s $26.9 million school bond, short of the 60 percent supermajority required for the proposition to pass.
The bond that would have funded maintenance projects at all the district’s schools, as well as multiple athletic facility improvements at Vashon High School, including the construction of a new track, a synthetic turf field, a second gym and renovations to the existing gym, also would have raised property taxes for a $460,000 home by $228 per year ($19 per month).
Proponents of the bond said the current facilities are in desperate need of repair and replacement, and that new facilities would encourage a healthy community on Vashon, as all islanders would benefit from more gym space and a track and field that wouldn’t be riddled with puddles and ruts.
Meanwhile, opponents said the bond was unnecessary and too expensive. Some believed the tax increases would be too much for many islanders. Other opponents voiced concerns about the school board’s process and how they feel the board rushed the decision and planning of the bond.
“The bond failed because it was too much money,” community activist Hilary Emmer said. “The community, not just the athletic community, should be involved from the beginning and not get locked out.”
Vashon Island School District (VISD) Superintendent Michael Solt-man said at a Thursday night school board meeting that he is still motivated and ready to craft a funding solution the community can get behind.
“It would be easy to be disappointed, but it’s im-portant to note that a majority of the community did support it,” Soltman said. “We were a few hundred votes away from it passing. Let’s not be discouraged and propose a solution. Let’s pursue it soon.”
Board member Dan Chasan, who believed from the beginning that the bond was too expensive, countered Soltman’s statements about the fact the bond got a majority vote. He said that it didn’t matter because the bond was short of the 60 percent supermajority.
“That’s true (it got more than 50 percent of votes in favor). It’s also irrelevant,” Chasan said. “This is a game we play to 60, and we were not even close.”
The district will bring a revised version of the bond back for either a November 2016 or early 2017 vote, but a decision on when exactly the bond will go for a second try was not made Thursday.
Former school board chair Laura Wishik, who was in the audience Thursday, is conducting a survey to gather feedback about why islanders voted “no.” Results from the survey will help the school board figure out what to consider when taking the bond back for a second attempt at passing. The survey can be acccessed at surveymonkey.com/r/vashonbond.
While the athletic facility improvements proposed in the bond drew the most attention from proponents and criticism from opponents, the bond also included $1.86 million for replacement and renovation projects at all three of the district’s schools.
With the failure of the bond, the school board addressed funding for these projects during Thursday night’s meeting. Funding will now likely come from the district’s Capital & Technology Levy, which is scheduled for the April special election ballot. The board will need to have a resolution for the ballot by Feb. 23 if it wants the levy to go to the polls in April.
The current levy is a four-year levy that was passed last in 2012 and brings in $900,000 per year. Vashon homeowners are charged 37 cents per $1,000 of assessed home value. School district documents show that if the current levy is not adjusted for inflation, the levy rate decreases by one cent per thousand per year.
The discussion at Thursday’s meeting revolved around three levy options: renewing the current $900,000 per year levy with no changes, adjusting the levy for inflation or increasing the levy to $1.2 million annually. Adjusting for inflation would keep the levy rate at 37 cents per $1,000 of assessed home value; increasing the levy to $1.2 million would bring the rate to 49 cents per $1,000.
Many of the board members, including Chasan, Zabette Macomber and Bob Hennessey, said they believed the levy should be adjusted for inflation, but not raised.
“We have to decide on a reasonable and plausible number for the levy. I don’t think we should increase it,” Chasan said.
Wishik spoke out against Chasan’s opinion.
“It is irresponsible not to increase the levy,” Wishik said before saying that she believed an increased levy would pass easily.
However, the board remained hesitant to “load up” the levy, as Chasan said. The levy adjusted for inflation will likely be on the April ballot.
The district has $4.5 million worth of what it calls Priority 1 repairs, meaning repairs that cannot be postponed. Some of these include seismic upgrades and masonry repair to the McMurray Middle School gym, replacing classroom flooring and windows and replacing the roof of the high school’s Building F. However, the board expressed concern about some of the other Priority 1 projects, questioning whether the “urgent” determination was necessary. Board chair Hennessey questioned the urgency of adding acoustic dampening to the Chautauqua Elementary School gym and replacing “movable furnishings” at Chautauqua.
With more projects to do than available resources, the discussion quickly turned to the possibility of changing the monetary ratio of the Cap/Tech levy. Currently, $130,000 of the $900,000 in levy funds collected annually goes to capital improvement projects. The rest of the money goes to technology.
“We have more need than resources. We have to prioritize,” Hennessey said. “Could we spend less on technology and more on preservation of facilities?”
Soltman said that the district’s technology program already runs “very lean” and that the district has been taking donations of used computers from the Gates Foundation.
“Taking money out of technology is taking it directly out of the classroom,” Soltman said.
The district’s bond was the only measure in the February special election that did not pass. Bonds and levies in seven other school districts passed, according to the King County Elections website, including a $99 million bond for the Tukwila School District. County voters also passed two levies in Tukwila, as well as levies in Auburn, Federal Way, Fife, Mercer Island, Renton and Seattle. Levy elections require a simple majority to pass.
Despite the defeat of the bond, Vashon did have the largest voter turnout in the county. King County Elections reported a total of 4,387 ballots had been returned — 53 percent of Vashon’s 8,319 registered voters. Vashon’s 53 percent represents twice the percentage of most other areas. Renton, Fife and Tukwila all had voter turnouts of less than 23 percent. Mercer Island had the second-highest voter turnout rate at 34 percent.
Election results will be certified on Friday.
Bond survey
Islanders who voted against the bond are urged to fill out a survey to help the school board determine next steps for the bond. The survey is not affiliated with the school district and can be accessed at: surveymonkey.com/r/vashonbond.
