WENATCHEE, Wash. — A completely new high school for 1,900 students runs about $250 million these days.
That was the ballpark cost presented last year to Wenatchee School District's facilities committee members who were researching options for remodeling or replacing the now 46-year-old Wenatchee High School.
"We were surprised by the numbers," committee member Joy McCallum-Clark said. "Price tags are different than what they were even five years ago. And it's not just construction costs, but regulatory matters that play into what we're required to do in a public school vs. a private construction project."
Given her reaction then, she isn't surprised now that community members have questions about the proposed $154 million project to renovate and add space to the existing facility recommended by the committee.
"I assure you, we asked those same questions," she said.
The project requires the passage of a $120 million bond proposal that will be decided by voters April 24. The other funding sources include a $31 million match from the state and $3 million carried over from the district's Phase 1 bond that focused on Washington and Lincoln elementary schools.
The Phase 2 plan on the table for the high school is to build a three-story 150,365-square-foot classroom wing behind the existing gym, demolish the old classroom wing, add a new kitchen and remodel most everything else. In the end, the school would grow from the current 285,419 square feet to 343,192 square feet, adequate for 1,900 students.
"The cost seems big. But it's incredible for what we're getting, for the amount of space and everything being new," said Superintendent Brian Flones. "We're talking about more than 150,000 square feet of new space. What we're getting for that $120 million is not unreasonable based on the amount of square footage. This is a big, 1,900-student comprehensive high school. It's not a 500-student elementary school."
The bond proposal is the largest in the district's history.
"The last bond was for $66.5 million in 2014, which paid for Washington and Lincoln elementary remodels. That was a big number at the time," Flones said. "Before that, the biggest was $26 million. We got the same questions about the numbers then."
It's a matter of scale.
"To put the $120 million in perspective, it's not that different than the $35 million to $38 million we spent on Washington. It's three Washington elementaries," he said.
Facilities committee member John McQuaig said the high school construction project is part of an ongoing plan to keep the district's facilities up to par. The idea is to phase construction, looking at the needs of all the schools and costs to taxpayers, with timing set so bonds would be paid off as others came online, avoiding a dramatic increase.
That leads to the other big-money question being asked by community members — taxes.
The bond proposal comes at a time when state school funding changes put a dent in taxpayer pocketbooks, leading to questions about what the proposed $120 million 20-year bond would mean in the future.
The McCleary fix -- the Legislature's response to a State Supreme Court mandate to amply fund basic education -- added 81 cents for every $1,000 of assessed value to property tax bills this year.
What voters may not understand is next year, the second part of the Legislature's plan, to cap local levy rates at $1.50 for every $1,000 of assessed value, will kick in. Plus, the Legislature approved a one-year 30-cent rate drop for next year.
That means, Flones said, that even if the bond is approved, which would add about $1.17 for every $1,000 of assessed property value, next year's levy rate will be less than it was this year because of the levy cap.
Looking forward, the rates will drop as bonds are paid off and as property values increase.
Flones said many of the other questions he has been fielding in the past few weeks have centered on specifics about design of the building including safety and security features. All of those details will be decided during the design phase that would happen once funding is secured.
His hope is the community understands the need at the high school and shares the vision of what it will mean to students in the future.
"There was a vision in 1972 to get rid of the three-story building on Columbia Street and build this," he said of the current school on Millerdale. "It was state of the art in 1972. We didn't have computers in 1972. A lot of the students were not going to school to learn skills for jobs that aren't even here right now, or for technology that has not yet been invented that they're going to be using. They need to have those cognitive skills that can make adaptations and do those things. That's what we want for our students at the high school. That's what I'm hoping the community sees. It's certainly a need. It's not a want."
