What’s All This About Yet Another School Bond? What part of NO don’t they understand??
The Issaquah School District’s (ISD’s) $642,345,000 Bond proposition on the November 2024 ballot was overwhelmingly defeated! Since it was a Bond, a 60% supermajority was required to pass it. The proposition received only a 50.08% approval. Nearly 30,000 voters said no! Despite this resounding defeat, and instead of paying attention to this clear message from the voters, ISD has launched another bond proposition for the February 11 ballot.
So, Please Vote NO again in February!
ISD will advertise this new proposition as being for $231.6 Million. While this appears to be for less than the November proposal, the $231.6 Million does not include the $79 Million in interest that will have to be paid on the bonds. This brings the total cost to us taxpayers to $310.6 Million, and it also doesn’t tell the whole story.
ISD is advertising that this new bond would maintain the tax rate for the school district at $3.09 per thousand in assessed valuation for the 10-year life of the bonds. Furthermore, on their website, they claim the $3.09, “includes current and projected levies.” They imply that the constant tax rate will mean no increase in our taxes. Not only is this misleading, it is simply not true. Even if this new school were to be built, it's not clear that they have the funds required to operate it! The operating funds the district receives from the State are directly tied to student headcount. ISD’s own, overly optimistic, enrollment projections show a decline in high school enrollment between now and 2035, and only modest growth beyond that! So, they will have to propose new levies in order to keep the lights on in their over-priced new building, violating their implication of no tax increase. Furthermore, as you can see from the charts above, there is a huge "balloon" payment at the end of the payment period. This would not be there except for this bond. Thus, even if the "tax rate" does remain constant, we still pay an extra year and a half of taxes at the rate which we would not otherwise be paying. This is indeed a TAX INCREASE. Additionally, they will still need another bond in the near future to fund their wish list of the other projects that were rejected by the November 2024 vote. Splitting that $642.345 Million into pieces doesn’t make the total any smaller!
$138.7M of his new bond proposition is for the new High School #4 (HS#4) ISD is trying to build! If the proposition passes, it will increase the total cost of HS #4 to nearly $400,000,000 (including its share of interest on the new, and existing bonds still being paid off from the 2016 proposition)! The project would have a significant number of major adverse impacts from increased property taxes, to decreased quality of life for it’s neighbors, to gridlock conditions on 228th Avenue SE during school opening and closing times. These are just a few reasons why the CCARE Political Action Committee (PAC) is opposing this misbegotten project as we did in the November election.
Furthermore, this new high school is not needed! ISD continues to claim that they need it because Issaquah and Skyline High Schools are “overcrowded.” However, the data in their own 2024 Capital Facilities Plan (CFP) demonstrates that they currently have adequate total capacity to accommodate current high school enrollment. Additionally, they have previously admitted that the overcrowding is not in the classrooms, but rather in the public spaces – hallways, bathrooms and cafeterias. They have already acknowledged that there are much less-costly alternatives to their alleged overcrowding. These include, returning to a Junior High model (Grades 10-12 in high schools, 7-9 in Jr. high and K-6 in elementary; and there is plenty of room in the lower grades), redrawing school boundaries to adjust enrollment, and staggering start times. Let ISD use what they already have and save well over $300,000,000! Nearly $400,000,000! Please Vote NO again in February!
To help our cause, please click here: PayPalto make an online donation (you do not need a PayPal account to do it!), or send a check, made out to CCARE, to 3020 Issaquah Pine Lake RD SE #134, Sammamish, WA. 98075. Thank you for your ongoing support!
November 2024 election
$1.7 BILLION? YIKES! Vote NO on Issaquah School District Bond Proposition 1!
The Issaquah School District (ISD) has placed a $642 Million bond (Proposition 1) on November’s ballot. It includes $182,700,000 to build High School #4, the THIRD time they’ve asked for money to fund this project.
What is the district NOT telling us? ISD money management is out of control, and they are not being transparent
The $642 Milliondoes not include approximately $200 Million in interest on the Bonds, bringing its total cost to over $800 Million!
Combined with $814 Million from the 2016 bond still being paid off, this proposition would bring the total debt imposed on the district’s taxpayers to nearly $1.7 BILLION!
The State Auditor determined that ISD Administration “misused” $46 Million of the 2016 bond money (Seattle Times, Jan. 15, 2023), and questioned ISD’s use of a $420,000 grant for laptops. ISD “did not concur” but “subsequently returned” the entire grant amount.
Moody’s credit rating for the district has gone from“stable” to “negative.”
Proposition 1 doesn’t guarantee the money will be spent on the promised projects.$36 Million of the 2016 bond money, meant for HS#4, was spent on a new Administration building.
Earlier this year, they “repurposed” $44 Million from the 2022 levy for other ISD projects, then put another $44 Million back into this bond.
Costs for HS#4 have increased from the original estimate of $120 Million, to 164 Million, and finally another $198 Million. If this bond passes, HS#4 will cost over $340 Million including the bond interest.
Taxpayers pay more, land developers pay less
The Administration is transferring the cost of new schools away from developers to us by radically reducing impact fees, while promoting one of the largest property tax increases in the state.
Increased property taxes even though we are still repaying previous bonds and levies.
The King County Assessor shows a 25% property tax increase from 2019 to 2024 in ISD’s slice of the pie.
We can’t trust ISD, or what they say
They claim their 2025 tax rate (a nearly 10% increase over 2024) will remain constant until 2036. Yet, if Prop 1 passes and HS#4 is built, they will be coming after us again for more operating funds since they won’t have enough money to run the new school!
We voted yes in April 2022 to fund mental health support for our kids. Three weeks later, the district laid off counselors to “balance the budget” (King5, May 2, 2022). Now they claim part of this bond is for “Student health and well-being.”
The district’s own 2024 Capital Facilities Plan (CFP) shows that they already have existing capacity to accommodate their projected high school enrollment for the next 10 years!
CFP enrollment projections are consistently overestimated in spite of today’s demographic trends.
The extravagant design of HS#4 includes a three-story atrium for a cafeteria, a 2000+ seat stadium with lights that will only be used “a few nights a year,” a 780-stall parking garage with four rooftop tennis courts, and more impractical, expensive architectural features. And, by the way, the designed hallways are no wider than those in the current buildings!
The district has produced NO estimates for improving and remodeling existing campuses, even though Lake Washington School District will expand existing high schools instead of building a costly new one, AND 60% of HS#4 students will come from off the plateau.
ISD forces us to make bad decisions
The 2022 levy bundled technology for students with $44 Million for HS#4, forcing us to vote for a bad project to fund a good one – and they’re doing the same to us this time!
ISD is out of touch
The City Councils of Sammamish, Newcastle and Renton declined ISD’s requests to endorse this proposition.
A district-funded survey shows that their priorities differ from those living in the district. 49% of responders saidISD does a “fair” to “poor” jobof “being transparent.”
Parents and residents who raise questions are marginalized and attacked.
ISD isn’t using NetZero construction to significantly reduce decades of future operating costs, but other parts of the bond are for increasing energy efficiency at other schools! Without doing it right the first time, they’ll be coming to us for more money again.
It’s another bad plan for a bad site
Cougar Mountain Middle School faced multiple delays and cost overruns due to the hillside site.
ISD’s architect said the HS#4 site is“challenged with space because of the lack of flat areas” and “multiple topographic challenges.”
There will be 4,100additionaldaily trips on 228th Av. SE – a street that already has six schools on it.
They ignored recommendations to downsize the plan from the cities of Issaquah and Sammamish.
Kokanee Salmon, who spawn in Laughing Jacob’s Creek, will be harmed by increased stormwater runoff, because 77% of the trees will be removed, and they “… are not seeking LEED or green certification”
Only one entrance/exit, which the City of Sammamish says is not safe for emergencies.
To help the cause, please send a donation made out to CCARE to 3020 Issaquah Pine Lake Road SE #134, Sammamish, WA 98075 or go to the DONATE button at the top of the page.
No candidate authorized this ad. Paid for by A Committee of Concerned Advocates for Responsible Education, 3020 Issaquah Pine Lake Road, #134 , Sammamish WA 98075; Top 5 contributors : Providence Point Umbrella Assn.; no others Top three donors: n/a
300+ Million for a 20th Century School
“I have served 20 years on the development commission and worked on many school district projects. I am not overjoyed tonight. I’m actually upset. I feel like there is a missed opportunity here. And what you did tonight was what you could do, which was decide if it met the code. But the code to me is not a visionary or an aspirational anything – it’s a code. There’s a huge lost opportunity here. I’m upset that we never talked about what this campus could do to bring our youth forward into the 21st century with something other than a stadium. I heard in the testimony that we were provided for this, somebody called having a stadium at every school ‘equity.’ That’s not. That’s equal. ‘Equity’ is making sure that all of the students in the school have opportunities for what they want to do and not just the sporting community. We should have been able to look at something that was amazing and imaginary and forward-thinking and we got a school from the 1970’s.”
Issaquah Mayor Mary Lou Pauly Issaquah City Council Special Meeting April 19, 2022 YouTube Video at approx 1:19 Approval of Resolution 2022-09 by the Issaquah City Council
CCARE OPPOSES ISD 642 MILLION DOLLAR BOND PROPOSAL
7/11/2024
$642 MILLION is Just Too Much! LET US BE VERY CLEAR – We are FOR kids and FOR public education! CCARE PAC members include parents, experienced teachers and public school administrators, as well as university professors who have supported school bonds and levies in the past.
However, we are fed up with ISD's seemingly endless appetite for increasing our taxes. We see defeating this bond as the only opportunity for the taxpayers of the District to force ISD to LISTEN and to make the changes that will make things better for the District's kids and residents today, and in the future. Therefore, we are against this incredibly expensive Bond proposalbecause it places a highly unreasonable, long-term financial burden on the District’s taxpayers! At its May 23, 2024 meeting, the Issaquah School District (ISD) Board of Directors voted unanimously to place a $642,345,000 capital bond proposal on the November 2024 ballot.1 This proposal includes $182,700,000 now required to complete the proposed High School #4 as currently planned.2 If this bond issue were to pass, it would bring the total capital cost of this High School project to nearly $300,000,000!
At the same meeting, the ISD Board “repurposed” $44 Million from the 2022 capital levy.3 At that time, this amount was advertised to voters as needed in order to fund the then deficit in proposed High School #4’s estimated cost. That deficit has now reached $182.7 Million. The Board’s May 23 action “repurposed” that $44 Million to other capital projects which were originally planned for as part of this 2024 Bond.3 While the total capital cost of the Bond did not change, it increased the HS #4 portion to $182.7 Million.3
After a Bond issue was passed in 2016, the District Board “repurposed” $36 Million to buy and remodel a new Administration Building. How can they be trusted not to again “repurpose” a portion of this proposed Bond for something other than what is currently being advertised to the voters of the Issaquah School District?
More content will be added to this website in the near future, so please check back for additional information. Meanwhile, for more history on the controversy surrounding the proposed High School #4, click on the Archive links to the right.
We welcome your donations to support our campaign. Our contact information is below. Please VOTE NO on this Bond proposal in November!
US Mail: CCARE, 3020 Issaquah Pine Lake RD SE #134, Sammamish, WA. 98075 Email: [email protected] Sources: 1. Issaquah School Board Bond resolution #1223, May 23, 2024 2. Presentation charts from ISD’s May 23, 2024 Board meeting 3. Issaquah School Board Resolution #1222, May 23, 2024
***** Future Events ****
= If you would like a yard sign, please email us with your contact information. = Presentation at Providence Point clubhouse ( 4265 224th Ct SE, Issaquah, WA 98029 ) on Friday, October 18th at 1 pm.
Contact us: [email protected] or CCARE 3020 Issaquah Pine Lake Rd SE #134 Sammamish WA 98075