Bellingham school bond ballots due Tuesday. Here’s what proposal would fund
Taxpayers in the Bellingham school district are being asked to fund a $122 million bond measure to build a new elementary school, plan for future school replacements, add learning space for special education and create easier access for disabled students.
It would add about $200 a year in property tax for the owner of a median-priced home in Bellingham, which is about $550,000, said Simone Sangster, assistant superintendent for finance.
Schools Superintendent Greg Baker told The Bellingham Herald that its buildings are community assets.
“Whether you are going to use that school or not, someone in your family has,” Baker said.
District-owned rooms, gyms and auditoriums are often used for meetings, athletic events and performances not sponsored by the district and its playgrounds and athletic fields are open to the public outside school hours.
Bellingham High has even been used as a temporary shelter for homeless people amid the new coronavirus pandemic.
In addition, quality schools are a selling point for employers.
“People move to Bellingham for a lot of reasons — including its schools,” Baker said.
“We want to make certain that all our students and staff have excellent facilities,” he said. “We really work hard to be good stewards of our public dollars.”
Ballots due Tuesday
To pass, the bond measure requires 60% approval, and at least 40% of the turnout from the last school election, schools spokeswoman Dana Smith told The Herald.
Ballots are due by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8, and must be postmarked — not just mailed — or placed in a special ballot drop box by that time.
No postage is required.
Bellingham last asked for funding to supplement its basic state aid in 2020, a pair of continuing operations levies that received 71% approval from the 26,300 district residents who voted.
Bonds provide money to buy land, build or remodel schools, and buy things used in schools, according to an informational website produced by Educational School District 112, which serves six counties in southwest Washington.
Levies add to the money that each district gets from the state and can be used for teacher salaries and special programs, ESD 112’s website said.
A simple way to remember this is the adage that “levies are for learning, and bonds are for building,” ESD 112’s website said.
Only bond measures require the 60% supermajority.
What will it cost?
If it’s approved, the bond measure will increase the rate for the school’s part of the property tax to $3.47 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2022 and to $3.72 in 2023 and 2024.
That’s the combined tax rate for all the district’s current levies and bonds, Sangster told The Herald.
Property owners who want to learn how much they will pay under the bond measure can do the math with a calculator, or the calculator app on a smartphone, Sangster said.
First, find your property’s assessed valuation from the Whatcom County Assessor’s Office.
Then, multiply by the tax rate and divide by 1,000, Sangster said.
Rate for school tax in 2021 was $3.48 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
For example, someone who owns a home assessed at $300,000 would pay 300,000 times 3.47 divided by 1,000, or about $1,044 a year for the school’s part of their tax in 2022.
In 2023, the school’s part of their tax would be $1,116 — a $72 annual increase.
“Bonds last for longer time periods than operations levies, which expire after four years,” Sangster told The Herald in an email.
“In planning our bond and levy resolutions we bring to the voters, we do our best to structure them in a way that will result in consistent tax rates for our community. We anticipate a future bond resolution, but anticipate that the tax rate if that bond passes in 2024 will maintain at or around $3.72,” she said.
What the bond funds
According to information provided by Bellingham schools, funds from the bond measure will be used to:
▪ Build an elementary school for the King Mountain neighborhood on Bellingham’s north side — its fastest-growing area — at a cost of $50 million.
▪ Begin the design process to replace Carl Cozier, Columbia and Roosevelt elementary schools, at a cost of about $10 million.
▪ Use about $19 million to buy land, design and build a home for the Community Transitions program, which helps special-education students up to age 21 live independently.
▪ Add almost $23 million to fund current projects, including a new district office, a new Sunnyland School, and athletic fields at Bellingham and Squalicum high schools.
▪ Add $20 million in funding for other projects, including accessibility for playgrounds, adding classrooms to Kulshan Middle School, improving traffic flow at Cordata School, and creating “more visible sustainability practices” across the district.
That means going beyond recycling, using low-flow toilets and adding light bulbs that use less energy, said Mark Peterson, the district’s director of facilities and sustainability.
Peterson is the schools’ version of a “climate czar” and Bellingham is the only district in the state with a director-level position focused on sustainability.
New schools will have more electric vehicle charging stations, some lawns are being replaced with “meadow grass” that doesn’t need mowing, and native landscaping is being planted and used as a teaching tool for students in those schools, Peterson told The Herald.
“We’re thinking forwardly and intuitively about how we can move toward electrification,” and eliminating the district’s use of fossil fuels. “ We feel that really shows our commitment to where we’re going.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
