Meridian School District considering tax bond in fall

KIRA MILLAGE - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

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LAUREL - Faced with ailing systems that waste energy and require constant repairs, Meridian School District officials are working with community members on a multimillion-dollar bond proposal to put before voters likely this fall.

A $23 million bond to renovate Meridian High School fell short of the required 60 percent approval in March 2008. But district officials still feel it is necessary to make building improvements.

In December, the age of the buildings and boilers became a major issue. Winds damaged the roofs of several structures in the district, and sub-freezing temperatures combined with aging boilers and old pipes at the high school meant that some classes were moved to the auditorium because the classrooms were too cold.

"The needs were very, very present when we ran (the bond) almost a year ago," said Superintendent Tim Yeomans. "And now it's even more exacerbated as the boilers are affecting the ability to deliver instruction in the school district."

Since Yeomans took over in 2007, a major theme of the district has been efficiency, both in personnel and operations. The district office was reorganized and slimmed down last school year in an effort to streamline district leadership.

Yeomans and other district officials also have been trying to make improvements without costing the district anything. Last year, the district starting using a free e-mail and calendar service through Google and most recently received nine school buses to replace ones with worse gas mileage. Both upgrades were done without going to taxpayers for extra money.

But the building inefficiencies can't be solved by the district without help. One of the biggest problems, aging boilers, keep maintenance staff busy year-round because there's always something that needs to be fixed on them, Yeomans said.

The boiler at Ten Mile Creek Elementary School takes multiple days to heat the building, meaning it's turned on in the fall and left on until the spring. At the high school, some classrooms receive minimal heat due to calcified pipes, while others turn into saunas, requiring doors and windows to be left open to keep the temperature bearable.

"We can't control buildings that aren't well insulated and hemorrhage money," Yeomans said.

Even though the economy is causing financial woes, it has positive aspects that relate to schools. Bond interest rates are low and construction costs have dropped, making project price tags more affordable.

The new bond will likely include projects at each of the schools, and Yeomans hopes to keep the tax rate at or below $4 per $1,000 of a home's valuation.

People interested in working on the bond request should contact the district office at 398-7111. Informational meetings will be held in the spring, but no dates have been set yet.

"We are extremely mindful of the difficulty of the challenges of the economic climate, which is why we really want public participation," Yeomans said. "If we didn't have posts holding up beams in classrooms and impacted pipes, we would choose to defer some of this, but we're not at a point to do that."