Seattle schools seek $887 million

Voters can be excused for a little sticker shock when they open their absentee ballots.

In a special election Feb. 6, the Seattle School District will ask taxpayers for $887 million for new and renovated buildings as well as maintaining basic educational programs.

The district is quick to point out the bond and levy would simply continue existing taxes. In fact, officials argue, the tax rate may even fall below current levels over the life of the levy if property values continue to increase.

If they fail, the district could bring the proposals back to voters later this year, but Seattle school officials say rejection would be tantamount to catastrophe. Proposition 2, the $397 million Educational Programs & Operations Levy, accounts for 24 percent of the district's general fund, and Seattle hasn't denied two levies in a year since 1976.

If voters approve Proposition 1, the six-year, $490 million bond would, among other things:

• Replace Denny Middle School and create a shared campus with a renovated Chief Sealth High School ($125 million).

• Renovate Nathan Hale High School ($77.6 million), Ingraham High School ($22 million) and Rainier Beach High School ($500,000).

• Renovate historic Hamilton Middle School ($73.5 million).

• Reconstruct the South Shore building ($64.7 million), currently home to The New School.

• Make various water, air-quality and athletic-fields improvements ($26 million).

• Upgrade technology in the classroom ($42 million).

Critics contend the buildings chosen for renovation or replacement reflect political priorities instead of real needs, and they question whether money already spent has addressed lingering problems, such as the list of schools that currently don't have potable water.

The district says it has a good record of managing large public-works projects, despite rising construction costs.

Six years ago, when voters approved the previous building levy, the district said renovations to Garfield High School could be done for $60.9 million. In the end, Garfield, which is expected to be finished in 2008, will cost $100 million. Budgets for other buildings similarly ballooned, and the district was forced to cancel one project: the $14 million World School, a bilingual program that did not have a specific site planned. It also postponed Hamilton Middle School's renovation.

District officials say the original price tags were artificially low, and while the district included $80 million for inflation, no one could predict in 2001 that the price of steel and concrete would rise 10 to 12 percent annually as it has in recent years. Edward Peters, chair of the citizens oversight committee of the 2001 construction levy, gives the district high marks: B+ or A-.

"You will not find a better run school-construction program anywhere," Peters said.

Neighborhood assets

Many of the schools have become neighborhood amenities. Madison Middle School in West Seattle, for example, was finished in 2005 on budget and won an architectural award. It boasts a state-of-the-art heating and cooling system that reduces greenhouse-gas emissions, and a floor plan that clusters classrooms around a common area.

Levy supporters point to successes like Madison and downplay the impact of political discontent with the School Board, which has come under fire in recent months.

"Every election there are those concerns [about the district's direction]. This is really about the kids," said Peter Maier, president of Schools First, a private organization urging support for both propositions.

Opponents have zeroed in on the South Shore project in Southeast Seattle, which houses The New School, a private partnership that provides kids with intensive instruction and preschool.

Melissa Westbrook, who served on the district's school-closure committee last year, notes that other schools, such as Pathfinder K-8 in West Seattle, are equally in need of repair. Last year, the School Board tabled a proposal to move Pathfinder to another West Seattle building.

"There are other schools that are worse and have been waiting a lot longer than New School," she said.

As for the list of schools chosen to benefit from the construction bond, the district said it gave first priority to projects that would improve academic achievement, followed by building condition and capacity.

South Shore met all of the criteria, said Eleanor Trainor, Seattle Public Schools' capital-projects community liaison.

Water service an issue

While waterline projects comprise only a small fraction of the overall construction bond, water service has bedeviled the district in recent years.

Three years ago, the School Board called for an investigation after a small percentage of school drinking fountains were found to have lead levels considered dangerous by the federal government. The district reports that it has spent $9.2 million on water projects, which includes testing, paying for consultants and replacing drinking fountains and water lines.

Still, Lafayette, Fairmount Park, Dunlap and Concord elementary schools, Rainier Beach High School and "one or two others" have no water service, said Trainor, and students must drink from water coolers or bring potable water from home.

The levy before voters would provide $10 million for waterline projects, which include replacing lines. While Schools First, the private pro-levy organization, is expected to raise about $300,000 in campaign funds, there is no organized opposition, said Westbrook.

"If I wanted to do a campaign, people would take it wrong, that I have something against the district, which I don't," she said. "It's just this list."

Marjorie Skotheim, spokeswoman for Schools First, responded: "The needs far outstrip the availability of funds to address them. There are so many projects in need, reasonable people disagree."

Besides mailing absentee ballots, King County Elections will open 236 polling places on Feb. 6.

Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com