the second picture that includes the hill is actually Josh Wilson Rd, not Peterson Rd.  the caption as shown online doesn’t reference this.  was this done to show “the base of Bayview Ridge,” or was the picture taken by the same appraiser who “assumed” too much? 

so many problems, beginning with the school district counting their chickens before they were hatched, not investigating the alleged offers on the land, not reading the contract before it was signed &/or documenting why the zoning change clause was removed. . .but i still can’t get over a qualified appraiser assuming the parcel was in the UGA.  isn’t that partly why one hires an appraiser?  how can you make a reasonable price comparison if you don’t know the zoning?  lots of folks made big, expensive mistakes with tax dollars, so there’s plenty of blame to share; still, a correct appraisal could have ended it before critical mass was reached.

This is part of exactly why BE taxpayers/voters should not and hopefully will not approve a bond issue. Unless and until the board and administration make a full accounting of what has happened and remedy what has happened, nobody should allow them to spend another nickle!

studephan, you’re right.  The elitism and entitlement culture of the educational industrial complex reeks more than a farmer spreading manure!

Putting a school where they want to will invite commercial growth + some residential.  Good thing is, we’ve got two county commissioners (Wesen & Dillon) who for once are fighting for the strategic interest - not the special interests.

I say the appraiser is open to a lawsuit and hopefully he has enough insurance coverage to go after.

Other than that, the school board seems far to inept to be out there entering into any kind of legal contract.  Their errors are really amateurish in nature. They should be required by law to hire a real estate attorney to represent them in ANY purchase contracts.

The scary part is that this is the same group making closed door decisions about all school funding.

Finally, there should be a through investigation, with statements under oath to discover if there were any benefactors other than the sellers, and if there was any collusion between the sellers and the appraiser, OR the sellers and any school board members.

A good newspaper would get right on this.

Wow. How many programs and supplies would this money provide for students.

“David Parsons and Associates, a Mount Vernon appraisal firm, assumed the property was already in the urban growth area, according to the appraisal document.”

The appraiser assumed?  You could this information by making 1 phone call to the county.  The job of the appraiser is to verify things like this that will effect the value of a property.  He should be sued to say the least.  As to the school board, in the real world people get fired for this kind of conduct.  Everyone involved with this decision should step down.  Their idiocy has degraded the quality of education in Burlington.

The confluence of arrogance and incompetence that has produced this pathetic situation is staggering. When voting on bond issues, I have always given items aimed at improving our local schools the benefit of the doubt, but now that has changed. We would be fools to trust this school board with another dime. It’s time for each member to step down in deference to capable replacements, starting at the top.

yowza!
Skagit hogs at trough rule and the price to community is high...impressed this was reported in Skagit Herald.  Thank You for publishing this very significant story (which really happened in ‘07). Follow-up and further info will be imperative if not vile and stinky.  We can no longer wring hands for B/E school district which is obviously in the unpleasant and now public position of collusion.  Moving to Kitsap does not warrant justice and educators seeking consideration due to profound ignorance just failed the test.  Their integrity = crap.
Parsons is only a required hoopjump for overvalue...getting it wrong is quite alright when hands are regularly greased and the trough awaits.

Yup - and they wonder why the Bonds they run keep getting voted down.  Until someone resigns or goes to jail - My wife and I will not vote yes on a bond.  Its criminal and the people running the school board shouldnt be in charge, as they have been proven to make the wrong decisions with regard to my money and I refuse to give them any more to make further bad decisions.

Has the BESD gotten caught up in a bit of bubble financing here? Did the company financing this zero-down deal know about the errors in the appraisal by David Parsons and Associates? Did they care? Perhaps the School Board just wanted an appraisal that would justify the asking price. I never heard anything from the District about how these properties were being financed during either the 2006 or 2007 bond proposals.  (In fact during the 2007 bond election the District was telling folks they had also purchased a piece of land on Bay View Ridge.  They apparently have never secured any property up there.) This seems to me to be a case of too few people making decisions behind closed doors. In return, the Board of Directors has bought themselves and the BESD a seemingly unpayable public debt, another piece of property they won’t be able to utilize, and a whole lot of bad will with district voters.

amen to the bad will with the voters, turtledove.  “bad will” might even be understating it.

by the way, it seems someone at SVH did read my earlier comment and changed the pictures available online.  the one of Josh Wilson hill is gone now, replaced by a map without explanation.  really, it was there!