MARYSVILLE — The Marysville School District’s slimmed-down $32 million bond proposal is on the ballot for the April 27 special election.
With most voters already having received their mail-in ballots, MSD Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland wants them to understand that the bond would represent a reduction in a number of ways.
The school district had previously put a $78 million bond, to replace the district’s three oldest school buildings, on the ballot in February. It only received 53 percent of the vote, falling short of the required 60 percent supermajority. The $32 million bond would replace the Cascade Elementary school building, which Nyland deemed “our worst school building” based on the consensus of a number of engineers and architects who have examined it, but at the same time, he emphasized that the bond would cover improvements to technology and health and safety for the district as a whole.
“If they vote yes on this bond, they save $120,” Nyland said. “If they vote no, they only save $60. It might sound counterintuitive, since people probably expect it to cost more to do good for their community, but because the current bond issue is expiring, they’ll actually see a substantial decrease in their school taxes.”
While the actual bond rates for 2009 and 2010 were $2.11 and $2.02, respectively, per $1,000 of annual assessed valuation on Marysville residents’ property, the Marysville School District has projected bond rates of $1.61 in 2011, $1.41 in 2012, $1.22 in 2013 and $1.03 in 2014 if the April bond is passed. Nyland attributed much of these savings to the current low cost of construction, citing a report by the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce which stated that the average cost of building an elementary school in Western Washington is down approximately 22 percent compared to the past two years.
“I’d also remind voters that we’ll have $3 million left over from the last bond, which did everything we said it would do and more, to help offset costs further,” Nyland said.
Nyland asserted that modernizing technology will advance student learning by improving their access to information on the Internet and giving them the skills to communicate more effectively in an increasingly tech-savvy world. He likewise noted that very basic repairs would be made to the Marysville-Pilchuck pool, mostly to the boiler and the beams of the building, as part of the district’s commitment to health and safety.
Mailed-in ballots must be postmarked by April 27, but they may also be dropped off at the Marysville Public Library by 8 p.m. that day.
