Islanders are concerned about the cost of replacing Captain Johnston Blakely Elementary and the 100 Building at Bainbridge High School.

At least, that was the gist of Monday’s forum on the Bainbridge school district’s facility master plan, the second of seven planned this fall as school board members consider options for a February bond measure.

Back in 2005, six buildings were identified in the district’s master plan to be scheduled for replacement or repair over the next 15 years: the BHS 200 Building, the BHS 100 Building, Captain Charles Wilkes Elementary, Blakely, Ordway Elementary and the Commodore Options School. The school district revamped the BHS 200 Building in 2006, a new Wilkes followed in 2012, and, after a master plan update facilitated by Mahlum Architects this past spring, the BHS 100 Building and Blakely are up to bat, though Mahlum confirmed that the other two schools are also in need of replacement, albeit less urgently.

During Monday’s meeting, presided over by Superintendent Faith Chapel and Tamela Van Winkle, the district’s director of facilities and operations, Mahlum Architects managing partner Butch Reifert reviewed the firm’s findings, elucidating various building options and their affiliated costs.

The 50-year-old Blakely building is structurally overstressed, Reifert said, with mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems beyond their useful life and interior finishes in need of complete replacement. Reifert offered three options for moving forward:

• “Postpone, patch and repair” the facility for $5.5 million;

• Modernize the existing building for $38.2 million; or

• Construct a new school for $39 million.

(Estimates include soft costs.)

Constructed in 1970, BHS’ 100 Building has similar issues, Reifert said. There is little accommodation for alternate learning opportunities; mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems are beyond their useful life; the roof is in need of immediate replacement; interior finishes are worn; and there is chronic water infiltration in below-grade areas. The cost of updating the 100 Building hinges on the design of the theater.

100 Building options

As with Blakely, the district can “postpone, patch and repair” the facility for $8.4 million or modernize the existing building for $16.6 million. Replacing the building outright would cost between $15.4 million and $27 million, Reifert said.

A black box — with limited rigging, no stage and 150 to 175 seats — would cost approximately $15.4 million, whereas a 300- to 450-seat theater would cost $24.3 million, and the most elaborate option, a 450- to 600-seat theater would cost $27 million.

Officials shared four combined scenarios that the board could choose from in November. Each included additional designations for asset preservation — of Sakai Intermediate, Woodward  Middle and BHS’ 300, 400 and 500 Buildings — as well as “essential” postpone, patch and repairs.

A $60.2 million capital bond would allow the district to replace Blakely and temporarily repair the 100 Building and the Commodore Options School.

For a replacement of the 100 Building, with a black box performance space, and repairs on Ordway and Commodore Options, this figure would bump up to $68.5 million.

For a new Blakely and a new BHS 100 Building with a 300- to 450-seat theatre, the district would ask for $77.5 million, and for a new BHS 100 Building with a 600-seat theater, they would ask for $80.2 million.

Impact on tax bills

Taxpayers would only see a slight increase in their levy rates due to the capital investment, Chapel said.

For example, a median household of $486,000 could expect to pay an additional $107 per year for the first option (replace Blakeley; postpone, patch and repair the BHS 100 Building), $141 for the second (replace Blakely, build a black box theater), $175 for the third (replace Blakely; build a new 300-450 seat theater), and $185 for the fourth (replace Blakely; build a 600-seat theater).

When pressed by an audience member, Chapel confirmed that the increased levy rates could be in effect for 20 years, or whatever the length of the bond.

At the conclusion of the presentation, the community response centered around the perceived tax burden rather than the pros and cons of the various options.

“So would you be coming back to us in five years for another $50 million?” asked Rod Stevens, in reference to the Ordway and Commodore Options buildings, which would be repaired, but not replaced under all four proposals.

Chapel said an additional bond request was a reality, but she did not provide a cost estimate — despite attempts by Steven to solicit a figure — noting that, “What we’re going to do in 10 years [is] contingent on what we do now.”

Support for theater

Still, there was support for improving school buildings on Bainbridge.

Ovation! co-founder Marijane Milton gave an impassioned plea for a new and expanded BHS theater, dismissing an increased tax levy as the difference between three and nine lattes a month, to much applause.

And her husband, Ron Milton, Ovation!’s artistic director, stressed that a black box is not a viable option.

He provided a particularly compelling visual of female cast members forced to run to the stadium in between scenes to change clothes or use the bathrooms, in addition to students on ladders who have to leap to change lights in the current facility.

But Robert Dashiell wasn’t willing to let the tax discussion go, bringing up the $15 million police bond on the ballot in November, in addition to the $5.9 million bond for the Sakai property and the $16 million bond for fire stations passed last February.

“Taxes are going to go up markedly on the island in the next two years without this bond,” he said. “Bainbridge Island is becoming less and less affordable. There is a little more to it than just a latte a day. This is pretty big money for most of us.”

More meetings coming

VanWinkle characterized the first meeting, held Sept. 15 in the BHS theater, as filled with enthusiastic community support.

“I don’t remember any concerns about cost,” she said.

“In fact — one community member basically stood up and said, ‘Go big or go home.’ We had so many people at BHS say this is long overdue, this is something our students need,” VanWinkle recalled.

Facility master plan community discussions will continue next week at the Ordway Library, from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, and at the BHS 100 Building LGI, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 30.

The school  board will host three additional meetings — from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 1, 7 and 14 — in the Commodore Commons, the Wilkes Gymnasium, and the Woodward Commons, respectively.