MONROE — A $110.9 million bond request for the Monroe School District is narrowly passing, according to preliminary election results released Tuesday evening by the Snohomish County Auditor’s Office.
With 6,309 ballots counted — more than the minimum 4,686 needed to pass — the bond had been approved by 61.17 percent of voters. At least a 60 percent yes vote is required for passage.
Mailed-in ballots will continue to be counted this week, which could change the results.
“There’s still quite a few ballots to count but this is an excellent start,” district spokeswoman Rosemary O’Neil said. “None of this would have been possible without the hours and hours of work people in our community put in to make this happen.”
If approved, the bonds are expected to provide money for improvements to school buildings, ball fields, technology, safety measures and other projects. State school construction money is expected to add $21.3 million to the $110.9 million.
The district plans to levy property taxes to pay off the bonds, which mature within 20 years. O’Neil said the tax rate is to remain the same because existing district bonds will be paid off in 2016.
Now, district property owners pay $1.48 per $1,000 of assessed value for school bonds. The owner of a $278,400 home, the median price in Monroe, pays $412 a year for the existing school bonds. That amount is expected to remain unchanged.
The district wanted to keep the tax rate the same when it decided to ask for the $110.9 million, O’Neil said. It failed to pass a bond in 2010 to cover some of the same building improvements that will now be addressed with the bond money.
Monroe has a long list of major renovation projects to complete with the $110.9 million. Construction is planned to start in 2016 and continue for at least six years.
The bond money would also pay for safety improvements, heating, ventilation and electrical upgrades and roofing, flooring, sidewalks and other work.
It’s been more than a decade since Monroe voters last approved a bond for school buildings in 2003. That bond paid for building Fryelands Elementary, modernizing Maltby Elementary, adding a wing of classrooms and the sports stadium to Monroe High, and making space for music and physical education classes at Hidden River Middle School.
Voters previously passed three of 20 bond requests since 1991.
The district has about 7,155 students in five elementary schools, two middle schools, a high school and five alternative schools. A community committee began evaluating conditions at the schools in 2013 and later helped develop the list of projects to be completed with the bond money.
Members of that committee gathered with teachers, parents, district staff and others in a downtown Monroe restaurant to wait for the election results to come in Tuesday evening.
“There was yelling, hollering and jumping up and down,” O’Neil said. “The people who truly won this evening are the children.”
The district wants to reduce the use of portable classrooms at all of the schools. Students now attend classes in about 40 portable rooms districtwide.
Many classrooms in the district open to outside walkways, which makes emergency lockdowns less effective, O’Neil said. With the bond money, the district would like to create one controlled entry point for each school and expand the use of security cameras.
Among the proposed projects are security improvements, building upgrades and new classrooms at Frank Wagner and Salem Woods elementary schools. The heating system at Salem Woods needs to be replaced.
Park Place and Hidden River middle schools both need safety improvements, renovations, technology upgrades, new ball fields and updated classrooms.
Monroe High School is slated to get new ball fields and upgrades to its Performing Arts Center with the bond money.
Upgrades are also planned at Chain Lake, Fryelands and Maltby elementary schools, Sky Valley Education Center and Leaders in Learning.
Amy Nile: 425-339-3192; anile@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @AmyNileReports.
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