Let’s send Prop. 1 back for retooling | LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Published 11:30 am Saturday, January 23, 2016

To the editor:

The pamphlet that recently arrived in the mail promoting the upcoming $81.2 million school bond issue is reminiscent of other slick sales jobs we’ve recently seen, notably the police station/courthouse bond issue and the 2009 school bond.

As readers may recall, at $42 million, the cost of the 2009 school bond was viewed by many at the time as unreasonably high. But even after it was rejected by the voters, no attempt was made to reduce the cost to the taxpayers. Rather, the same $42 million was resubmitted unchanged, this time accompanied by a hard sell sales campaign that ultimately resulted in the bond issue narrowly passing.

This latest bond issue includes $38.9 million to replace Blakely Elementary. A comparison purportedly shows this cost to be in line with at least some recent elementary school projects. Surprisingly, the Wilkes project was absent from this comparison.

The 2009 bond issue included $32.6 million for replacing Wilkes; in other words, the planned cost for Blakely is about 20 percent higher, this for a very similar school that is to be built just a few years later. No explanation for this increase has been forthcoming, although it’s hard to believe that inflation can account for all of it.

Additional questions arise in looking at the BHS 100 Building replacement. About $9 million of the $30 million replacement cost is for a new 600-seat “performance center” to replace the existing 278-seat LGI facility.

The Bainbridge Island School District and Principal Fish have offered no clear justification for an auditorium this size beyond “other schools have them.” Moreover, this expansion seems to be driven at least in part by the input from a very vocal community(!) theater(!) group(!) that uses the BHS facilities for its own performances. From some figures published earlier the difference between a smaller (300-450 seat) theater and the one being proposed is about $3 million. This seems like a lot of money for the taxpayers to cough up to placate a noisy special interest.

Given how these two facilities have been allowed to deteriorate — school buildings should last longer than 45 to 50 years — I can’t dispute the need for replacing them at this time. But there are no doubt cost savings opportunities in both the Blakely and Building 100 replacements that could be accomplished without compromising the educational mission of these two schools.

At this point, it perhaps is best to view this bond issue as the first step in a negotiation between the school board and the taxpayers. Like our experience with the recent police and courthouse bond issue, rejecting this bond issue will give the opportunity for some serious review by the Bainbridge Island School District, with focus on what is truly needed rather than what is wanted.

DAVID LARIMORE

Bainbridge Island