By HILARY EMMER
For The Beachcomber

As a community, we pride ourselves on being healthy and environmental. We have a nonprofit working hard on zero waste, and we try to keep to the mantra, “reduce, reuse, recycle.” There is nothing in this $26.9 million athletic facilities school bond that holds to these three “Rs.”

I have many concerns about this bond, but my biggest is the synthetic turf for a new track and field. The school district is asking us to allow them to rip out our grass football field and replace it with a petroleum product through which water will drain out, making another large surface that may add to runoff. According to a study called, “The Dirt on Turf” by David Millar of Red Hen Turf Farm and Aaron Loan of Blue Grass Enterprises, we would need to plant over 1,800 trees to achieve a 10-year carbon neutral level by using this synthetic turf.

We care about the health of our children, and the district was careful not to consider crumb rubber infill, which has been suggested to cause cancer, especially in soccer goalkeepers. Instead, the infill being proposed is ground up Nike sneakers. Greenpeace tested shoes made by a dozen brands, including Nike, and found all of them contained potentially harmful toxins. Nike has committed to eliminating hazardous chemicals from its products by 2020. (“Greenpeace ‘red cards’ Adidas, Nike for toxic World Cup merchandise” by Jasmin Malik Chua, 5/27/14.) These tiny toxic pellets in Nike infill may not only affect our children’s health, but will also be in the runoff, possibly harming fish, wildlife and habitat.

Synthetic turf has to be replaced every 12 to 15 years, according to Vashon Island School District’s January Soundings newsletter; this adds tons of plastic to our landfill forever since it will never decompose. While we will be paying for the old turf for another five years of the 20-year bond, it will be sitting in the dump. The cost of installing a new turf in today’s dollars is $540,000. My guess is that this will morph into $1 million in 15 years. The school district currently asks the School Foundation for help paying for replacement textbooks, so where is this extra $1 million in 15 years going to come from? Bob Hennessey, chair of the school board, told me another bond would cover these costs.

Do we need a better track? Certainly. But part of the reason our track is in bad shape is due to a lack of maintenance over the past five decades. Years ago we should have put in a drainage system that would have dealt with our rainy conditions. New topping would be part of a regular maintenance schedule. I say, let’s renovate the track to meet current measurements. That does not mean the whole complex needs a complete overhaul for $5 million.

The school district previously invited sports coaches and the athletic community to work on their wish list, which became the basis for this bond. Now, the basketball coaches want another gym for basketball with bleachers and a new concession stand, so we are asked to pay $17 million for an auxiliary gym. One of the major reasons being stated for this extra gym is for additional PE classes. I do not believe more PE classes will be offered at the high school. Many students are in sports and waive their PE requirement. What’s more, Vashon High School’s student newspaper, The Riptide, reported that Spanish classes are currently so full that not all students have the opportunity to take four years of this language. More Spanish classes are needed, not more PE.

Not only is this bond over-priced, the process was also rushed. The reason was so that the old board could vote to place the bond on the February ballot. Bonds before voters in February have the highest success rate — probably because ballots will be due before the King County Assessor sends out the 2016 property tax bills. Property taxes on Vashon will be higher this year.

Finally, I don’t trust the integrity of the numbers in the bond. Architects for Integrus, the firm that designed the high school, realized in July that they forgot to add 55 percent in soft costs on to all their estimates. All costs went up significantly. After that, some board members said they did not have confidence in the planning team or their numbers, but to get this bond on this ballot, they voted for it anyway. Only Dan Chasan, who did not like the planning rush or the dollar amount, voted no.

A “no” vote today is not a rejection of our kids or the district. It’s a request for a plan that is both better thought out and more affordable.

— Hilary Emmer is a longtime islander and community activist.