Voters will have the chance to vote on a $450 million schools bond this November.
The Federal Way Public Schools Board of Directors unanimously approved putting the bond on the ballot at a regular meeting Tuesday.
“We’re excited to engage our community and get our community to rally behind a plan for our facilities that will bring them into, what I would say, the modern era, to help our scholars have learning environments that promote the kind of rigorous, engaging, collaborative environments that close gaps in achievements, so we’re excited,” Superintendent Tammy Campbell said.
While the bond will re-modernize and expand eight aging schools and Memorial Stadium, voters will not see a tax increase, the district said. That’s because the district is preparing to pay off the Federal Way High School levy in 2018 and old bonds in the coming years.
School district officials estimate if the bond is passed, taxpayers in the Federal Way school district will continue to pay $2.05 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
This means, a homeowner with a $250,000 home currently pays $512.50 a year, or $1.40 a day, toward paying off old bonds and the high school levy.
That amount will stay the same if the bond is passed, and the property owner’s assessed valuation stays the same, as they are not seeking to pass a rate but a set amount for the bond.
Board President Geoffery McAnalloy said passing a facilities bond has been a two-year conversation.
“It’s definitely beyond time,” he said. “I mean, it’s been 10 years since we’ve done a bond, and so I hope the community can see all of our surrounding districts have passed these bonds. Look at Kent, Highline, Auburn, Fife – all of them have passed. Tukwila, Renton, they’ve all passed. So it’s just time for us to step up and do that, to take care of our communities.”
McAnalloy said not only will the bond benefit students, but new schools will raise Federal Way home values and boost the overall feeling in the community.
Before the vote, board member Liz Drake said she was thankful for the close board representation on the Facilities Committee, which consisted of 100 members.
“I intimately know the negative impact conditions within a school has on our scholars’ learning, and there are times where I wonder what I’m doing as a school board director,” the former principal of Thomas Jefferson High School said. “Tonight, I really feel very passionately and strongly that voting for this resolution is a powerful way to be doing the right thing for our scholars.”
McAnalloy echoed Drake’s sentiment.
“Sometimes you wonder why I do things, especially when you’re a policy governance board, when you do things from an operation [standpoint], but this is a piece of that, this is a profound piece of my four-year time on the board of what we’re doing to move things forward to take care of what needs to be done in this district for a long period, 50 years probably, right?” he said, adding he hopes voters will understand why the district needs their support.
Currently, the school district is over capacity by 1,000 elementary-age students. It’s so bad at Wildwood Elementary that two kindergarten classes have been forced to share one room.
The buildings are old, but if voters pass the bond, Thomas Jefferson High School, Illahee and Totem middle schools, and Lake Grove, Mirror Lake, Olympic View, Star Lake and Wildwood elementary schools and Memorial Stadium will be rebuilt.
The rest will get major upgrades through state School Construction Assistance Program funding.
Campbell said the next steps will be getting the information out at a district level as well as through a citizens committee “that will be engaged in going out and really helping to talk about why this is a compelling case.”
“The hard work starts now,” she said. “We’ve got to get 60 percent and so many voters to show up, so we’re gonna go out there and make the case and get our community behind us.”
