It’s unfortunate that in the current campaign over the school bond measures, flawed calculations continue to dog the debate.

The latest comes in the form of the King County voters’ pamphlet, which most Island residents received in the last few days and that repeats faulty arguments that have been circulating the Island for the last few weeks.

As The Beachcomber reported two weeks ago, Prop. 1 — the $47.7 million bond measure that would fund a makeover of Vashon High School — does not include a new classroom building erected at the staggering costs of $541 per square foot. Rather, according to construction data provided by the district, the 40,000-square-foot building would cost $288 per square foot — a number that at least one outside expert said the district appears to have derived accurately and that is well within the realm of industry norms.

Nor is it accurate to state that the average cost of a high school in Seattle is one-third that amount — or $163 per square foot — as the con statement in the voters’ pamphlet says. That number comes from RSMeans, a division of Reed Construction Data Co., a national firm that provides data to the building industry. According to Barbara Balboni, a senior engineer for RS Means, contrasting her company’s number with the district’s number would not be an apples-to-apples comparison, as RS Means is measuring “a little more than a shell,” not the costs of a fully equipped building, which the district’s number measures.

“To oppose the school bond issue on that kind of number ($163 per square foot) can be misleading,” she told The Beachcomber.

The voters’ pamphlet also includes the opponents’ analysis of the costs based on the current number of students: “The total projected $47.7 million for 516 high school students equals $92,442 per student,” the con statement says, or enough, one of the opponents told The Beachcomber, to send each of those students to Harvard for four years. What opponents are failing to calculate are the thousands of students who would pass through the halls of this building over the next 30 or 40 years. The new classroom building is not being constructed for 516 students. It’s being built for some 5,000 students — depending on the life of the structure and the size of subsequent enrollments.

We don’t believe the opponents set out to intentionally mislead voters. The authors of the con statement are engaged Islanders who, like many, are undoubtedly concerned about the escalating costs of life on Vashon.

But their numbers, it turns out, are wrong. And we believe they should step forward and acknowledge that. This is an important issue. It should be argued on the merits — not on false information.

Indeed, the real question is far more simple: Is this the right measure at the right time? After some extensive reporting on the issue, The Beachcomber believes it is.