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Schools

Peninsula Schools to Regroup After Defeat of Bond Measure

School district leaders will consider their options for putting the bond back on the ballot at a future date as they work towards prioritizing—and figuring out how to pay for—most pressing maintenance projects.

Although the s , Superintendent Terry Bouck prefers to look on the bright side.   

“If you look at it positively, about 58 percent of those who voted supported the initiative,” he said. “If you look at it from the standpoint of any other type of election, it probably would have been a landslide.” 

The final tally after the Feb. 23 certification was 11,760 votes for the measure, or 57.67 percent, and 8,631 votes, or 42.33 percent, against. 

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Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson said the area’s voter turnout for the special election was strong. “Over 51 percent of the district’s voters turned in a ballot this February,” she said. “It was much lower elsewhere around the county.” 

Instead, Anderson believes the poor economy and “tax sensitivity had more to do with the outcome than voter turnout,” she said.  

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But the failure of the bond doesn’t change the district’s need for maintenance funding, said Bouck.

“There’s still work to be done. We still need to do capital maintenance throughout the district. And we will continue to do it the way it have, which siphons money from the basic education budget as well as our levy budget, which impacts the classroom,” he explained. 

Without adequate funding, the district has taken a “squeaky wheel” approach to handling building maintenance and repair. 

Bouck said the more pressing needs would come from the 12 older schools that haven’t been renovated. Although not yet part of a formal plan, he said emerging projects could include the remainder of the roof replacements at Discovery Elementary School and Peninsula High School. 

“We still have roofing and siding and HVAC systems and emergencies that come up throughout the year that won’t stop," Bouck said. "So we still need to maintain our buildings to the best of our ability.” 

Without consistent funding from a maintenance bond, the district has drawn funds from the basic education and levy budgets to handle maintenance needs.

Bouck said that during the 2009-10 school year alone, the district spent $2.2 million in maintenance and $2.8 million in custodial work for a total of approximately $5 million to maintain its buildings. 

Adding the maintenance drain to the shortfall in funding from the state complicates the challenging budget situation for the district, he said. With the anticipated cuts in state funding this year, between $600,000 and $700,000, total cuts over five years will exceed $11 million, he said. 

“It doesn’t paint a good picture of being able to provide the same quality education as we have. It’s difficult.” 

While the district will run another replacement levy in 2012, “80 to 85 percent of that money goes to maintain staff. In order to solve our maintenance problem, we’re going to have to at some point run the bond again,” he said. 

Within a couple of months, Bouck plans to make a recommendation to the school board for the timing of the next capital bond ask. He said the district hasn’t yet decided whether to put it on the ballot as soon as this spring or as late as in a year or more. 

What is clear is Peninsula School District’s need to solve the funding puzzle of long-term capital maintenance needs. “One bond of $45 million in 20 years is not significant when it comes to maintaining the buildings in a district that educates 9,000 kids,” he said.

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