1) This bond allows us to be prudent and fiscally responsible with our maintenance and repairs so we don’t use operations dollars that could go directly to the classroom.

For instance, if a school boiler fails, the replacement is at least $500,000, equivalent to six teaching positions. If no bond funds are available, classroom operations dollars must be used instead.

2) This bond allows us to rebuild some of our oldest schools during this period of low-historic construction costs.

After more than five decades, Clark Elementary, Issaquah Middle, and Sunny Hills Elementary are at the end of their lifespans. Long-term financial forecasts favor rebuilding now—in a period of historic low construction costs— rather than making ongoing major repairs in the years ahead.

3) We are one of the most fiscally responsible school districts in the country so you know we will manage these bond dollars effectively.

Issaquah School District received the Moody’s AAA rating which is given to less than one percent of all school districts in the United States. The District has the lowest administrative costs as a percentage of our budget than any other district in King County.

4) In relation to current tax expenditures, residents can expect to see a decrease in local school taxes even if the bond is approved – for example, the owner of a $500,000 home would pay about $215 less in taxes per year.

How? Recognizing the current economic climate, the new bond package ($219 million spread over eight years) is structured to be about half as much as the bond debt retiring in 2012. The retiring bond debt will drop the tax rate from $4.85 to $4.05 per $1,000 of assessed property value; approval of the new bond will result in an estimated $4.42 tax rate.

5) By modernizing Tiger Mountain Community High School, we are enabling the expansion of career and tech training to help all high school students compete in the global economy.

6) There is simply a strong correlation between healthy school districts and a healthy economy.

Preparing this generation of kids compete in a global economy ensures a well-trained workforce, lower crime rates and improved home values. Let’s keep Issaquah and it’s surrounding areas vibrant and prosperous for years to come…

Sammamish Review: Issaquah School Board supports its own bond issue

VIS/PTA rep should have:

• Good communication skills
• Know lots of people in the school community
• This is a great job for a past or current legislation chair, past president, past fundraising chair

There are two parts to the job:

• Communicate the benefits of the bond package to your community
• Recruit volunteers to help with the campaign

What will be expected?

• Campaign kickoff February 2
• Give 2-5 minute talk at every PTA meeting
• Forward emails to PTA
• Submit already prepared newsletter articles
• Make a list of 10 people we can send a fundraising letter to in early February
• Recruit people for Literature drops in March/April
• Recruit people for honk & wave in April
• Do mailing in April (VIS will make this very easy for each PTA to do)
• Distribute yard signs and magnets to PTA

Communicate the benefits of the bond package to your community
We will give you all of the materials you will need to effectively communicate the bond package. We will provide emails you can send, brochures you can hand out and a website for even more information.

Recruit volunteers to help with the campaign
This is crucial. It is against the law for the school district to have anything do with a bond campaign. The school district can give presentations on the pros/cons of the package and they can produce ONE piece of literature and mail it out. That is it. The rest of the campaign is done by volunteers, by us. So we need your help to recruit volunteers for:

Literature Drops – Every school will have parents and teachers meet at a designated location to walk neighborhoods and drop off literature on doorsteps.

Fundraising – We’ll ask you for a list of 10 people (even better if you can give us more) from your school that you think might donate money. You will provide their name, phone and address, we’ll do the rest.

Yard Signs – We will create the signs and give them to you, but we need them speak across the entire school district. You will find people who are interested in putting up yard signs for us.

Honk & Wave – The day the absentee ballots go out, and the day of the election we will stand at selected intersections across the district waving signs.

You might be feeling a bit overwhelmed at this point. Please don’t be, put as much or as little time into this as you can afford. Every bit that you contribute helps this campaign. Your role is significant because you build the grassroots organization. You DO NOT have to personally do everything that is listed, just help us find people who are willing to give some time to the campaign