Bond planning, TAC update part of BI School Board meeting

Published 1:30 am Thursday, August 6, 2026

At the July 30 Bainbridge Island School District Board of Directors meeting, director of facilities, operations and capital projects, Dane Fenwick, shared an update on the progress of capital bond planning.

On July 25, 2024, the school board approved and adopted the Long-Range Facilities Plan and Sustainability Framework developed by a comprehensive committee process. Since then, capital staff has been working with consultants to develop a scope and schedule for the development of potential bond or levy scenarios and subsequent ballot measures for school board review in future meetings.

Currently, BISD is in Bond Cycle 3, with sights set on major capital projects at Ordway Elementary School, Commodore Options School and a new athletic complex. Fenwick shared that BISD is currently in the planning stages for a potential bond, thinking about infrastructure, new buildings, maintenance improvements, and other small capital projects as well.

To plan for a potential bond, BISD looked at the 2024 Long-Range Facilities Plan to assess priorities. One of the concerns shared at the July 30 meeting was the decrease in full-time BISD enrollment. Enrollment is down by 885 students from the most recent high mark and from 2014 it is down 511 students or 13.1%, per meeting documents.

Fenwick shared that they will be prioritizing replacement of Ordway Elementary School and Commodore Options School in coming years. Replacement was essentially determined more cost-effective than modernization of the buildings due to district standards, educational specifications and current building codes.

From July to November, BISD will be planning for a potential bond, which includes a conceptual site plan and building plan as well as cost coordination documents. In 2026-2027, a bond campaign will begin that will lead into a potential funding measure in 2027.

Director of instructional technology Whitney Skarbek also provided the school board with an update on the Technology Advisory Council, which had its first meeting July 22.

Skarbek shared that there are 36 total representatives in TAC, including individuals from each department, each grade level, technology staff, community members, parents, board members and administrators. The administrators for TAC meetings will rotate as topics change and relate to different specialties.

“I am really grateful for everyone who has taken the time out of their summer to talk about some things that are important to our staff and most important to our community,” said Skarbek at the July 30 meeting. “It was important for us to welcome everybody and set the foundation for what we are talking about.”

BISD superintendent Amii Thompson also shared sentiments at the meeting as well regarding the first TAC meeting. “We set time to talk about technical versus adaptive challenges,” she said. “Almost everything we are talking about is an adaptive challenge or change. We made sure that we were all on common ground about what our goals are for the council.”

Goals set by TAC at its first meeting included protecting all user data while actively helping families understand what is collected and how it functions; establishing clear, recommended age appropriate guidelines for artificial intelligence use in classrooms; establishing precise, clear measures of screen time by grade level; auditing all currently utilized subscriptions, applications, and accessible classroom technology; and defining essential tech skills and monitor outcomes to verify college and career readiness.

There are also strict regulatory parameters for safety and alignment with district standards, shared Thompson.

By September, TAC will finalize and publish four structural accountability deliverables. This includes a standardized glossary, procurement system guardrails, comprehensive technology auditing and a draft screen time matrix.

Thus far, TAC has restricted all K-12 students from use of YouTube and Chromebooks are locked for the summer when class is not in session. Goals that remain in progress include an app and device usage monitoring tool called Lightspeed Insight, used for screen time reporting, as well as parental controls for Chromebook usage at home.

By September, Thompson shared that TAC will have a shared glossary of technology terms, a technology tool audit, procurement guidelines and guardrails, and a draft screen time matrix by grade.