The Seattle Times published an article this weekend about the HUGE jump in local school district growth. The article highlights some specific high growth school districts, including our neighbors to the west - Issaquah. Curious about how this growth is affecting the new Issaquah High School, I gave their school district a call.
The new Issaquah High School is filling up, though it's not quite at capacity yet. They are in that limbo stage where they can turn teacher planning spaces into a few additional classrooms, etc. Their expectation is that in about 2-3 years they will need to bring in portables to accommodate for the growth. If you aren't aware, the new IHS opened its doors just 4 1/2 years ago, in August 2010. That's mighty quick for a school to reach capacity. Good thing they have space for portables (which our new school won't have).
I can think of another quickly growing area near Issaquah... the Snoqualmie Valley. Builders are constantly working hard to add homes and bring more residents to our beautiful community. Does anyone really think this growth is going to stop in the near future?
When planning for our schools let's make sure we are investing our money in a long term solution. Building a high school that only allows for 100 to 200 additional students, and is expected to be at capacity within 8 years of opening, is not a realistic comprehensive long term solution for our growing schools.
Please join me in voting NO on Proposition 1. Let's ask our school board to bring us a real long term solution.
It's hard not to generalize, but most people against school bonds are because they don't have any more kids in school and don't want to pay hundreds of dollars more in taxes each year. Putting it bluntly, I wish those people would WAKE UP! (“Hello, McFly, you in there McFly?!”)
ReplyDeleteNew Schools not only benefits the kids going into the schools (love kids!), schools and education in a city\town are the #1 (I say it again, "#1!") reason for property value increase. That's right! You heard it, these topics and issues are all about perspective, and when voting for things sometimes you have to look at it from all angles. Sure! It might be that you have to sacrifice and save a bit more each month to pay the extra in taxes at the end of the year only to see a 30% increase in your property value after 10 years which could be in the 100’s of 1000’s of dollars. Everyone likes money! What new Schools also do is attract more people in to the area, people with money willing to pay for good schools. Just saying “No Vote” is a bit obtuse and naïve to the fact that “you too” are affected by not having good schools in town or enough to educate the next generation of youngsters.