SEQUIM –– The City Council will discuss later this month a request made this week to pass a resolution supporting the Sequim School District’s $154 million construction bond proposal.
“Our schools are old. They’re in a poor state that just plain old maintenance won’t help with anymore,” Dave Mattingley of the Citizens for Sequim Schools advocacy group told the council Monday night.
Council members didn’t respond to the request broached during the public comment period.
A discussion of the request will be on the agenda for the March 24 meeting, said City Clerk Karen Kuznek-Reese.
The council meets at 6 p.m. at the Sequim Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
April election
Voters in the Sequim School District will decide April 22 on the measure, which would fund construction of a new elementary school, an extensive remodel and renovation of the high school and two existing elementary schools, and build a new athletic complex.
The Clallam County auditor will mail ballots for the election April 2.
Mattingley said the measure has gained support from both the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe and Olympic Medical Center.
Superintendent Kelly Shea also asked the council to endorse the bond measure, saying it will benefit the city as well as the district.
“This construction bond is and will be a major investment in our schools as well as our community,” Shea said.
Tax bill
If approved, the bonds would add approximately $1.70 per $1,000 of assessed value to the property tax bills of landowners in the district, which has a total assessed property value of $3.7 billion.
If the measure passes, a new elementary school probably would be ready for the 2016-17 school year, the remodeled Greywolf Elementary for the 2017-18 school year, the remodeled high school for the 2018-19 school year and a remodeled Helen Haller ready in 2019.
The school district has planned several more upcoming forums about the bond measure in the Sequim High library, 601 N. Sequim Ave., at 4 p.m. March 25 and 7 p.m. April 8.
For more information, phone the district office at 360-582-3260.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
