by Barbara Kline, Superintendent

This February, Orcas Island School District will ask voters to approve a Maintenance and Operations (M&O) Levy and a Capital Projects Bond.

The M&O Levy provides about 24 percent of the district’s annual operating budget. For example, the levy pays for about 24 percent of our teaching staff and about 24 percent of our office staff, bus drivers, principals, coaches, cafeteria personnel, and classroom assistants. The Capital Projects Bond proceeds will be used to renovate aging structures and systems, and construct new facilities to create a unified campus that will serve our community for decades to come.

The M&O Levy on the ballot in February replaces the M&O Levy that expires in 2010. The current M&O Levy property tax is $.36 per thousand of assessed value and the new levy is estimated at $0.61 per thousand in 2011 and $0.63 per thousand in 2012. The actual amount may be less depending on student enrollment and the percentage that the state legislature allows the district to collect.

The Capital Projects Bond proposal on the ballot in February permits the school district to sell up to $35 million in bonds to pay for school capital improvements over the next few years. The bonds would be paid back over a maximum of 25 years. It is estimated that the property taxes collected to pay off the bonds will be approximately $0.72 per thousand dollars of assessed value. The tax may be less depending on the interest rate on the bonds. In 2009, final payments were made of $0.27 per thousand dollars of assessed value were made on the last school bond. Payments on this new bond would begin in 2011.

Through studies conducted over the last four years, the Orcas Island School Board has identified the following projects as its highest priorities for school capital improvements to be funded by the bond proceeds: (a) renovation of elementary, high school, old gym and Waldron Island facilities; (b) construction of new buildings to house middle school, library, food service and commons, music room, career and technical education, OASIS, fitness room and district office; and (c) sitework and improvements to athletic fields and to campus safety and security including improved parking and parent drop off areas and a track and turf field.

The goal of the bond project is to create a community learning center with buildings that have been repaired or built to serve the school and community well for the next fifty years. The expected result is functional, high quality, easy to maintain, energy efficient and good looking buildings and grounds that work as a coordinated campus.

The board has retained the firm of Mahlum Architects to design the project. Information and visioning meetings have been held to invite public participation and other informational meetings are planned before the election. The Orcas Island School Board has stated that they are committed to providing opportunities for discussion before the vote and to keeping as much of the construction money in the community as possible after the bond is approved.

For more information, call me at 376-2284 or Janet Brownell, Chair of the YES on Schools Committee, at 376-4376 or visit the school website at www.orcasislandschools.org.

Barbara Kline is Superintendent of Orcas Island School District.