Voters should support school-construction projects

King County voters should approve school construction tax requests in the Mercer Island, Issaquah and Renton school districts.

VOTERS should say yes to school-construction bond requests from three King County school districts. Rebuilding aging schools supports learning every bit as much as buying textbooks or hiring a new teacher.

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We moved to Issaquah in 1994 for its public schools, location and sense of community. Our kids are in middle and high school now, and we still congratulate ourselves for that smart decision.

Issaquah will be even better with the April school bond. It’s a timely investment in our schools that tackles several key issues.

One issue is Issaquah Middle School, an open campus built in 1955 with the high heating bills to prove it. The bond offers a thoughtful, coordinated plan to rebuild IMS next to the high school (perfect!), reuse part of the IMS campus to build a larger Clark Elementary School, and reuse a separate part of IMS to house Tiger Mountain Community High and enable it to support new career and tech programs.

With all the stretching of school dollars, I also appreciate that the bond addresses significant maintenance needs in our school buildings so these needs won’t pull dollars from our classrooms. We can gain all this and more, and watch our property tax rate decrease thanks to being in a school district that is a careful steward of tax money.

The school bond is a great opportunity for Issaquah. Please vote yes!

Camille Vaska, Parent volunteer, Issaquah public schools

Our community benefits from excellent schools and excellent teachers. There is a connection between the two. Over many years, I listened to why new teachers chose Issaquah schools over those of other districts, and I heard them name the facilities provided for our children as one of the top reasons. Our schools not only provide environments that facilitate learning and stimulate creativity, they are also a reflection of the value our community places on education.

A citizen’s committee, after careful consideration, recommended a bond package to the school board, which carefully weighed this investment against the need to replace old buildings, protect and maintain our community assets, ensure the usability and safety of our facilities, accommodate future capacity and provide optimal learning environments. It reflects the values of our community and respects our ability to invest in our future.

I urge you to vote yes on the April 17 Issaquah School District Construction and Maintenance Bond.

Connie Fletcher

I am an 11th-grade student at Skyline High School and on behalf of my peers I urge and implore you to vote for the Issaquah School District’s capital bond.

You have doubtlessly heard about the virtues of the capital bond from various respected figures in the community, ranging from City Council members to state legislators. However, they are not affected by the capital bond as my peers and I are. Seventeen thousand of my peers are relying on your vote to improve the conditions of our schools, to maximize our potential and to make our educational experience the best it can be.

It may seem that making costly improvements to stadiums is a silly waste of money that could be spent on other things, but athletics is exceptionally important to my peers; it builds character, and brings in extra revenue and press to the school district. It may seem that rebuilding Clark Elementary, Issaquah Middle and Sunny Hills elementary schools is a waste of our money when there are cheaper alternatives, but fixing the problems with those schools now will prevent us from having to take a costlier path to fix the problems later. And it may seem that your taxes will increase with this bond, but they will actually decrease. There are no losers when you vote yes.

It may seem that the capital bond is not the right option, but that is not the truth. I have been a part of the bond process from nearly the very beginning, having served on the Capital Bond Feasibility and Development Committee during my sophomore year, and I understand the importance of having this bond passed. It is my hope that you, too, will understand that the bond should be passed.

When you get your ballots in the mail, vote yes for the capital bond and support me and my peers in our struggle to achieve our full potential, compete in a global economy and be the best that we can be.

Joshua Schaier

Readers are undoubtedly aware of some of the reasoning behind voting for the bond – reasons like ensuring that the investment made in public schools is maintained for future generations; that property values increase with the excellence of the school district’s performance; the fact that our district has been able to keep our construction costs low and still create state-of-the-art facilities.  These are very important reasons.

On a more elementary note, however, is the fact that the newer buildings in the district are bright and safe and comfortable and provide an excellent learning environment for our students.   They are home-away-from-home to our more than 1,000 educators and word gets around.  A comment I often hear from teachers new to Issaquah – but who have worked previously in other districts – is what wonderful facilities Issaquah has.  The heat works, the ceilings don’t leak, playgrounds and commons areas are safe and inviting.  Educators and students are not distracted by maintenance and safety issues. The focus of their day can be directed on teaching and learning.

Now it’s time to bring our older buildings up to the same level of quality as the newer ones – so all our students have the same excellent learning environment.  You, the voters, can make this happen.

Our schools are a vital part of the Issaquah community.  Please vote “YES” on the Issaquah School District Bond.

Phyllis Runyon, President
Issaquah Education Association

I am lucky to be raising my three children in Issaquah and proud of our great schools where students are receiving a top-notch education despite the fact that Issaquah continues to get the short end of the funding stick in Olympia.

In just a few weeks, your ballot will arrive for the spring election and I am urging you to vote YES for the Issaquah School District’s bond campaign.

Voting yes on this maintenance bond allows some of our oldest schools to be rebuilt at a time when construction costs are at a historic low. Voting yes ensures that leaky roofs, broken boilers and flickering lights are repaired. Voting yes will allow for the Issaquah school district to continue to develop and expand technical and career training options so that all kids have access to the education they need to be successful. But most critically, voting yes protects Issaquah School District’s operational dollars and keeps that money in the classroom to be spent on teachers, curriculum and training.

The bond committee carefully crafted this bond package to take advantage of long-term economic conditions that may never be available to us again. And, when we pass this new bond package, our taxes will still decrease from current levels. Win, win, win!

Please help me in investing in the future of our kids by voting yes for the bond.

Kristen Allen-Bentsen

Issaquah Press:
Supporters have yet to face opposition to $219 million school bond

By Tom Corrigan

By now, most of the campaign work is done, said Lesley Austin, one of the two co-chairwomen of Volunteers for Issaquah Schools, the community organization promoting the Issaquah School District’s capital improvement levy on the April 17 ballot.

For Liberty High School, passage of the April 17 Issaquah School District bond would mean completion of the reconstruction and modernization plan now under way thanks to a 2006 voter-approved bond.

At the same time, Apollo and Issaquah Valley elementary schools would receive sizable space additions, making room for 120 additional students at each building. Both schools would benefit from some much-needed maintenance, according to the principals of each school.

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From the beginning of the discussions over the upcoming school bond issue, Issaquah School District officials have admitted funding for millions in improvements to athletic fields in the district might be a hard sell to voters.

“We’re not doing anything outlandish,” said Steve Crawford, district director of capital improvements.

Crawford made the comment in September, answering questions from the school board prior to its vote to place the bond issue on the ballot.

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We wish the Issaquah School District had been more conservative in its request to fund the long list of items on the April 17 construction bond, but we get why it did so.

With another school bond ending its 20 years of tax collections, this is a good time to get a lot of catch-up work done on our school facilities, while still giving taxpayers a couple hundred dollars’ reduction in property taxes next year (an estimated $215 drop on a $500,000 assessed valuation home.)

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