*School District’s bond would pay for new construction, renovation
*Proposal faces economic hurdles

ANACORTES — Voters will cast their ballots next month on the largest bond request in Skagit County history.

The Anacortes School Board wants $62.9 million for renovations and new construction, despite a sagging economy and a tense voter mood.

Even in the best of times, it’s hard to pass a school bond, officials said. But this year could prove a challenge. Voters have made clear their hesitation about big spending.

None of the four school bonds that were on the ballot last April — Anacortes, Burlington-Edison, Mount Vernon and Sedro-Woolley school districts — met the 60 percent approval mark to pass. Last April, the Anacortes bond fell short with 57.9 percent of the vote.

The anti-tax mood of Skagit County voters that was reflected in the rejection of the bond issues showed up in last November’s general election, as well. While voters statewide decided to lower the vote requirements for school operation levies, Skagit County voters disagreed, 60 percent to 40 percent.

Meanwhile, property values increased by 20 percent in Anacortes. Most property owners will get their bills about a week before the Feb. 19 bond vote.

The bond project list is identical to the one that failed in April, though inflation has added $3.1 million to the cost. The bond would add about $137 in taxes on a $300,000 home.

Putting off construction will cost more over time, said Dale Bowen, district personnel and operations director.

“If the school board were to sit back and wait for the best time, it might never come,” he said. “You might as well go to the casino and put it all on black.”

In a telephone survey of 250 Anacortes residents, 59 percent said they strongly or somewhat favored the bond. Eight percent were undecided, according to the survey paid for by the school’s bonding company. The survey has a 6.3 percent margin of error and did not poll registered voters.

District Superintendent Chris Borgen said residents polled in the phone survey showed more support for the bond as a whole than by the parts alone. But the survey was conducted in August, before residents knew how much their property values went up.

The bond’s success will depend on the undecided voters — and whether parents vote at all, said Rick Yeomans, co-chairman of the Anacortes School Bond Committee, a citizens group leading the bond campaign.

“Every vote will count,” Yeomans said. “It’s not like this is a big community, where it’s going to pass or fail by 10,000 or 20,000 votes.”

Not everyone is sold on the bond.

Harold Ogden, a 15-year city resident, said he voted against it last time.

“I think they’ve probably got more in there than what they need,” he said. “But they’ll keep trying until it passes, I guess.”

Richard and Susan Vignos, retirees who have lived in the community for 11 years, browsed a free magazine rack at the library Thursday morning.

She can’t buy everything she wants. Sometimes they have to put off projects.

“In our own homes we’re careful with what we spend,” Susan Vignos said. “Sometimes we even do without. I’d like to see the School Board take that attitude.”

Anacortes High School

Officials say the high school is doing without space — and the high school’s needs make up the majority of the bond request.

A 1976 renovation increased the school’s capacity to 700 students, Borgen said. Today, 902 students attend class there.

While the high school population has declined, Borgen said that number will level off in coming years.

Some rooms are so packed that students have to turn sideways and shuffle their feet to walk down the aisle. Desks are jammed against walls and in every corner. In some science classrooms, computers sit on the tabletops next to the sinks.

The school hired more math teachers when statewide math standards changed. Nine math teachers now teach in a building constructed for five.

Algebra teacher Lynette Brower doesn’t have a classroom. She pushes a gray, wheeled cart with a bumper sticker that says “We all use math every day.”

Being on the move takes precious minutes from classroom instruction. Two minutes before the bell, she’s as restless as the students.

“I’m busy packing up because I have to go,” she said. “That’s not good teaching.”

The bond would mean more and bigger classrooms, Borgen said.

Career and Technical Education

In 1976, the Career and Technical Education wing was built with a plastics lab and an auto shop. Today the spaces serve a digital media lab and a metals shop. A porch was converted into spaces for special education, engineering and computer-aided design.

But those students have it easy, said Bowen. The construction trade class meets outside under an overhang every day.

“When it’s blowing and raining, it’s tough,” he said.

Jerry Chin, 17, said there’s not enough room in the metals shop, and the machines are outdated.

“Some of this stuff is pretty old,” he said. “The lathes are pretty bad. They keep breaking.”

When smoke builds up as the students work, they open the bay doors.

Mount Erie Elementary School

When Mount Erie opened in 1961, the school held 220 students. One addition and 47 years later, it holds 450.

But the nurse’s station hasn’t grown. There are two beds for students, which Principal Bob Knorr said often holds six students sitting upright.

When children vomit, they evacuate the room, which moves sick children into the hallways, Knorr said.

The bond would create more space and add a new gymnasium. The multipurpose room serves several functions: gymnasium, cafeteria, stage, basketball court and community meeting place.

“We can’t do any of it well because it’s always in preparation for the next group coming in,” said Knorr.

Kitchen Manager Lynne Borlin has five to 10 minutes after the last gym class leaves to get the area ready for lunch. Head custodian Von Storme sets up 16 tables while Borlin moves several carts into position before the lunch rush. If she’s not ready in time, students wait in line until she’s done.

Forty minutes later, it’s time to put the tables back so the next gym class can get started.

“We joke that if there was a competition, we’d win,” said Borlin.

Athletic fields

In November 2006, the Anacortes High School football team made it to the state playoffs. But the Seahawks had to play their “home” game against Centralia in Bellingham. War Memorial Field does not meet Washington Interscholastic Activities Association standards for tournament play.

Anacortes is the only high school in the league without covered seating, Bowen said.

A portable generator provides power for the scoreboard, the bleached wood of the 30-year-old home stands creaks with every step, and the visitor stands were condemned two years ago. The school borrows or rents stands for use on game day, said Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Rick Mergenthaler.

The field needs a synthetic surface, concessions stand and covered bleachers to bring it to standard.

If the bond passes, prefabricated home stands would seat 1,500 people under an aluminum roof, as opposed to seating for 800 today.

“I’m not talking Tacoma Dome,” said Bowen. “I’m talking aluminum bleachers where you freeze your buns off and have to bring a cushion or a blanket, with a roof over it to keep you dry.”

Visitor stands also are in the package, but without a roof, said Rick Yeomans.

“We’re hoping that will be the least of their problems when they play our football team,” he quipped.

For six months of the year, War Memorial Field sits unused while the grass recovers from the pounding of cleated feet and sliding bodies.

The field hosts 40 events a year, mostly football and soccer games. But the field could be used year-round if it had synthetic turf, said Maintenance Supervisor Marty Yates. The savings on maintenance costs in one year could top $35,000. And the field could be rented out for other uses.

At Rice Field, where track and field events take place, new bleachers would be installed, along with bathroom facilities and a revised parking lot that allows buses to drop students off and park elsewhere.

Maintenance facility

The yard surrounding the maintenance facility looks like a junkyard — littered with wheelbarrows, PVC pipe, random metal pieces and broken benches. A forklift rests on muddy ground between two storage containers under an awning that Yates built. Other equipment rusts in the rain.

“You can’t spend $15,000 for a backhoe and let it sit in the weather,” he said. “It doesn’t last in the Pacific Northwest.”

Inside, the facility is packed to the rafters with toilet paper, light bulbs and other supplies. Since there’s no room indoors, Yates said, crews work on equipment outside, rain or shine.

The district often pays for outside help to do work that the maintenance crew would normally perform because of space issues on site.

The facility has become a “drag on the system,” Bowen said. For the past four or five bond cycles, the school board has removed the maintenance facility from the package.

“It’s not seen as the same as getting books for kids,” he said. “Our $40,000 lawnmower should not be sitting outside.”

Yates noted that he bought that lawnmower on a government auction site for $10,000.

Many people object to the building’s $2.9 million price tag, Bowen said. He said people tell him at football games that they can erect a steel building for far less. If only it were that simple, he said.

“We have to meet certain standards because we’re in a neighborhood,” he said.

The maintenance facility sits behind the middle school, facing houses across 24th Street.

“It’s going to be pretty blue-collar,” Bowen said of the proposed building. “We want it to blend in nicely with the middle school and the neighborhood.”

The new building would nearly double the size of storage inside and provide covered storage for vehicles.

What if it fails?

Bond or no bond, Bowen said the high school needs a new roof. Wind ripped away shingles, and leaks pose a risk to everything from the gym floor to electronics equipment in the digital media lab.

“If you let it go, it’s going to cost more money,” Bowen said.

He doesn’t want to put a cheap, temporary roof on the building until the district finds the resources to build the new wing. But he doesn’t want to tear away an expensive roof once the new wing is added.

The boiler system and a water main by Mount Erie Elementary also must be fixed, he said.

He’s not sure where the money would come from, possibly a small emergency bond.

“I would take ideas from folks about how to solve that problem,” Bowen said. “We could reconfigure things. I hate to use portables. In a lot of school districts, portables become permanent.”

Anacortes High uses two portables and Mount Erie Elementary has one.

Other projects would have to wait, Borgen said.

“This is not a wish list; it’s things we feel truly have to be done,” Borgen said.

School Board President Carol Pyke said the need for improvements won’t go away.

“We still have to replace the roofs; we still have to provide for safe drop off for Mount Erie,” she said. “It’s just going to be more and more expensive.”

And, she said, the election last time was “pretty close.”

Some residents are ready to support the bond. Amy Harrington, who toted her son, Brennan, 2, on her hip as she walked into the library, said she voted yes last time and would vote yes again.

“Education is so important,” she said. “A lot of other groups are using the schools, like the quilters’ groups are using the schools.”

Anacortes High students use Brodniak Hall for productions, but so do other schools and community groups, such as The Dance Center.

The bond would update its aged sound and light system. Many lights on the stage are dark because the district cannot find replacements. Also, the orchestra pit floods when it rains, said Scott Burnett, history and drama teacher.

“We have this beautiful facility with no substantial updates in 30 years,” he said.

* Kate Martin can be reached at 360-416-2145 or at .

Want more information?
The Anacortes School District will hold an informational meeting about its bond proposal at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Anacortes High School library.

Other Anacortes school bond articles:
Anacortes school bond would fund $23.9 million career and technology wing at high school
School bond would fund classrooms, stadium, and renovate high school library, Brodniak Hall
Synthetic turf would allow more field use at same cost, school leaders say
Bond would unsnarl traffic in Mount Erie Elementary School dropoff zone, build new gym
School bond would replace ‘woefully inadequate’ maintenance building
District asking voters to ‘protect our investment’
Q & A: School bond costs, benefits examined
Inside the Anacortes school bond
School survey shows respondents favor same proposal
Anacortes School District’s $62.9 million bond goes to voters