Update: Issaquah School Board Approves Bond for 2012 Ballot - but Amount, Details Will be Determined During Summer

The Issaquah School Board approved a bond Wednesday evening for the February 2012 ballot, but the total dollar amount and how much each campus would receive will be worked out this summer, district spokeswoman Sara Niegowski said.

At the meeting, board members talked about the economic and political conditions of putting a bond before voters, according to a recording of the meeting posted on the district's website. Some board members said they had questions and wanted more time to consider the proposal. 

Board President Jan Woldseth Colbrese explained Friday that bonds can be complex and have a great benefit to a community. "But we want to put it together in a thorough way," she said. "We are strong stewards of tax dollars."

There is more board work to be done for due diligence, she added, noting that site visits might take place.

The board action should help residents, parents and other community members get ready in the coming months for work on the bond measure, she said. Typically, when bonds are put on a ballot, a committee of parents and community members helps lobby for its passage.

The Wednesday approval follows a scheduled recommendation from Superintendent Steve Rasmussen for a $227.7 million bond measure for the Feb. 14, 2012 ballot. That proposal, which was on the Wednesday agenda, would have been for capital needs from 2012-20.

District officials have been weighing the feasibility of a bond measure, especially given how the Great Recession's affects are still being felt, Niegowski said Thursday.

"I think they wanted to make an affirmative action to show that a measure will move forward," Niegowski said in an email. "The action by the board is actually a significant step."

In many cases, elected officials approve bond measures that have a total dollar amount attached and specifically say where the money will go. That gives voters a better idea of how much a property tax increase - should a measure be approved - would cost in specific dollars.

Colbrese said the board's decision to support a bond in general at this time does not mean a lack of trust in the proposal that district staff and community members put together.

"We didn't delve into huge details of each line item," she said, referring to the Wednesday meeting.

So district voters will need to wait for meetings to take place this summer and into early fall. At the Wednesday meeting, there was talk about July being a slow month in the district, bond discussions picking up in August and details possibly being ready by late September, according to the audio recording.

In terms of filing a bond measure with King County Elections, there is time to do so: Dec. 30 is the deadline to submit bond papers for it to appear on the Feb. 14, 2012 ballot, the district reported.

For now, though, district voters have the $227.7 million proposal, which was not approved Wednesday, to review for general information. District staff reported that the replacement of older district buildings would be the major goal of that $227.7 million package.

For example, , which is now in Sammamish and was built in 1962, would have received $27.1 million from that proposal. Issaquah Middle School and Clark Elementary School also are on the list of older buildings that district staff said need capital improvements.

"The age and inefficiency of these facilities places them as a top priority," district staff said in a memo for the board.

Heating older buildings, they added, cost more money and places a financial strain on the district's operating budget.

Also, under that $227.7 million proposal, $6.5 million would have gone for homeside stands and a larger press box for the stadium at .

There was talk of devoting $4.8 million to safety investments, including standardization of security investments and electronic lock and key cards for outside doors.

A district staff memo for the board indicates that a $227.7 million bond measure could be $4.85 for every $1,000 of assessed value of a home. That amount would last one or two years and then drop to $4.44 for every $1,000 assessed value for the life of the bond. A graph produced by district staff shows that a bond could possibly last for 30 years.

District staff worked off a presumption of a home having a $500,000 assessment. Those dollar amounts are often associated with a monthly cost.

In 2006, voters in the approved a bond for $241.9 million, which in part supported an expansion at Skyline and the building of . Major projects associated with that bond, though, are expected to end by September 2013.

On Wednesday, district officials talked about how construction costs have become more affordable in recent years - something that . Construction costs often dip when demand is lower and there are fewer dollars circulating in an economy.

District officials said that a bond measure requires a supermajority to pass. Issaquah officials had considered a measure for 2010. But the economic climate prompted them to look at a vote in the future.  

Editor's note: This story was revised in the late morning of Friday, June 24 to include comments from the Issaquah School Board president. Below is the breakdown of the $227.7 million bond proposal, which district staff put together for board consideration. The board did not accept this proposal on Wednesday. Sammamish Patch is including it to give readers a sense of what had been considered.