Do you have all the information you need about the upcoming bond package that will rebuild Sunny Hills?
At its September 28 business meeting, the school board is planning to finalize the bond package that will go before voters in February 2012. This plan will encompass the scope of school construction and capital improvement projects for the next eight years. Before approving the package, board members hope to collect as much feedback as possible from the community. The
meeting is Wednesday, 9/28, at 7pm at the Issaquah School District Administration Building.
There are several ways to join the conversation:
Bond process and current proposal
The Issaquah School District began the 2012 bond process with a community feasibility and development committee chartered by the superintendent. The committee worked last spring to shape the District’s initial springboard proposal of projects into a complete package, which the committee turned back over to the superintendent. The superintendent then analyzed the committee’s package and made his own proposal to the school board in June. Since then, school board members have created guiding principles, visited school facilities, spoken to community groups and members, and held public discussions about the final package. Ultimately, what they approve on September 28 will be the bond measure that goes before voters in
February.
What’s on the current proposal?
The major projects in the superintendent’s recommendation include rebuilds of the district’s oldest buildings, Clark Elementary, Issaquah Middle School, and Sunny Hills Elementary; continued renovation and modernization of Liberty High School; space additions at Apollo Elementary and Issaquah Valley; and ongoing repairs, efficiency updates, safety
improvements, and modernizations throughout the District’s schools and facilities.
Bond FAQs
Q. What is a bond?
A. School bonds specifically fund construction. A bond allows a school district to borrow money from lenders, which the district’s taxpayers pay back over a series of years. A bond cannot raise money for the district's operations fund, which pays for the day-to-day running of schools.
Q. What is the status of the 2006 bond projects?
Q. My property value has gone up/down in the past several years. Does that mean I pay more/less for school district bonds and levies?
A. As long as your home follows the general trend for property values in the district, the actual amount you pay for local school measures should not fluctuate very much. The entire dollar amount of the bond/levy measure is divided up per
property owner based on the value of his/her property. That means as long as your property value remains relatively equal
to other properties in the district, your tax bill remains steady—even if your tax rate goes up. For instance, if your tax rate on a $100,000 home is $3 per thousand of assessed value for a levy measure, you would pay $300; the next year, if everyone’s home value fell by 20 percent, your slice of the total bond measure would still be $300, but your tax rate would increase to $3.75 per thousand ($3.75 x $80,000/1,000= $300). If your property value changes dramatically in value compared to other District properties, however, your relative slice of the bond/levy obligation will also shift up or down accordingly.
Q. Instead of facilities maintenance, why doesn’t the District spend some of those bond dollars on school operations, such as lower class sizes and curriculum?
A. Bond dollars cannot legally be used for anything other than capital improvements. The state has a public interest in ensuring that schools operate with a stable funding source from year to year, which means it severely caps the amount of
local dollars that can be raised to run schools (before the cap was in place, districts could raise as many local dollars as taxpayers would support to run schools; when levies began failing in the 1970s, schools that had relied on those local dollars were in serious trouble, and the law was put in place). Now, districts can raise money locally for four purposes:
Operations of schools (Maintenance and Operations Levy): The legislated cap on how much a district can raise locally to run/operate schools is 24 percent of its total state and federal revenue (lawmakers temporarily boosted this to 28 percent during the 2010 session). Issaquah School District taxpayers approved a Maintenance and Operations Levy in 2010 that hits this cap, thus we are collecting our legal maximum to locally support classroom operations, including class size, curriculum purchases, professional development, and more.
Buses (School Bus Levy): This levy can be used only to buy new buses (the gas, drivers, insurance, and other costs
comes from the operations fund). Issaquah School District voters approved a new Bus Levy in 2010.
Technology (Technology/Critical Repairs Levy): The state provides no designated funding for school technology, so this levy fills the gap and can be used only to buy technology equipment and resources. Issaquah School District voters approved a Technology/Critical Repairs Levy in 2010.
Construction/capital improvements (Bond or Critical Repairs Levy): The state provides very little funding for districts to
build and maintain its facilities—they must rely on Construction Bonds or Critical Repair Levies to do so. The last Construction Bond passed in the Issaquah School District was in 2006, and those funds are almost gone.
The irony of this complex system of local funding is that a school district might find itself in the situation where it can build a new school but not have the operational funds needed to open and run it. The good news is that bond dollars CAN
contribute to the operations fund to support classrooms. How? When construction/capital projects provide energy efficiencies, increased facility rental fees, reduced costs of maintenance, and fewer transportation costs,
these saved dollars remain in the operations fund.
Q. Who can I contact if I have questions?
A. Finances and construction logistics: Jacob Kuper, Chief of Finance and Operations, (425) 837-7016; overall bond package: Ron Thiele, Associate Superintendent, (425) 837-7025; OR Sara Niegowski, Executive Director of Communication, (425) 837-7004.