The last time an Everett School District bond measure failed was 18 years ago in 1996. In other words, it’s been an entire generation since Everett voters told the district they didn’t support its financial priorities.
In February, the voters rejected the district’s $259 million record-high request for capital bond funds. The official message from members of the school board appears to be that they have no idea why the bond didn’t pass, as they have constantly called Everett taxpayers “generous.” Historically, district voters have passed bonds and levies with approval rates as high as 74 percent and 78 percent, respectively, since 1980. But I believe this measure failed for the same reason that it probably did in 1996 — controversial financial decisions and actions by district leadership that led to an erosion of public trust.
The Everett School Board Project, a community action group, recently conducted an informal, online survey that suggests clear reasons for why the bond failed. Through social media, we asked voters to tell us why they rejected the bond proposal. We offered a variety of potential answers and asked voters to select all that applied. Consistently, the top four answers were:
“I didn’t agree with the building of the new administration building.”
“I don’t trust the school board.”
“They waste our money.”
“I don’t trust the superintendent.”
The top answers all suggested a lack of trust, based in part on the district’s decision to build the $28 million district administration building without specific voter approval for the project and in lieu of some pretty serious needs in our schools.
So, what can district leadership do to regain the public trust? I believe that the answer is simple. Voters may not know that a short “reallocation clause” often used in the district’s bond proposals allows the school board to reallocate money to support other capital projects that, in their judgment, are in the best interest of the district. The clause reads:
“If, in the opinion of the Board, the needs of the District change in a manner that results in a circumstance wherein any portion of the above-referenced capital improvements is not required or in the best interests of the District, the Board retains the right not to acquire, construct and install such capital improvements and to reallocate the money originally contemplated therefore to other capital improvements to the District’s facilities deemed more necessary by the Board….”
This simple clause allowed the school board in 2011 to apparently deem a new administration building “more necessary” than other serious needs at schools in the district. They used the clause to amend the 2006 bond resolution and add the tracks at Cascade and Jackson as well as the new administration building. None of these projects were in the list presented to the public during the 2006 bond vote. In effect, this “reallocation clause” allows the board to perform a legal “bait and switch” without having to ask the public. As the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” The public merely wants to make sure we are not fooled again.
We propose this clause be modified in such a way as to bind the district to the list of projects presented in the original resolution and to require voter approval for any additions to the list of approved capital projects. This would assure voters that bond money will be used only on the capital projects that our vote has approved.
No one denies that there are much-needed student facility projects waiting. We all want to make sure our students have great facilities that foster educational excellence. However, we also want to make sure our vote is respected now and in the future.
I invite the school board to reword that clause and send a clear message to the taxpayers that they are committed to putting students first and also respecting the wishes of voters. That simple change would be a first step towards regaining public trust and would help to eliminate many of the concerns of those who rejected the recent bond vote. With this change, the revised bond measure would most likely have my support.
Kim Guymon runs the Everett School District Project.
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