Liberty Board May Propose $3.1 Million Bond Measure Pared-Down Request Would Ask For Half Of Amount Defeated Earlier

Liberty School District officials are a determined bunch.

This February, they likely will ask voters to approve a $3.1 million bond issue.

But those voters have shot down eight similar attempts in the past four years.

Liberty board members will decide at tonight’s regular meeting whether to join the Spokane, Medical Lake and Cheney school districts in placing levies and bond issues on the ballot Feb. 3.

Liberty’s pared-down bond would mean a tax rate of about $110 for the owner of a $100,000 home.

Last May, a $6.3 million bond issue fell just 2 percent short of the necessary 60 percent majority. Officials have since trimmed their wish list.

“The last (bond issue) covered a significantly bigger list of improvements,” said Superintendent Skip Berquam. “But we really wanted to create one that will pass.”

The new bond would fund the addition of four classrooms and a music multipurpose room at the high school, said Berquam. The district would also move the library into the high school from its present home in a portable.

“We’ve got a bigger group of eighth-graders heading to high school next year,” he said. “We’re anticipating 25 to 30 more kids at the high school, and we’d like to build for it.”

The bond would also fund improvements to the district’s wastewater treatment plant, which Berquam said doesn’t meet code requirements and will have to be updated if the high school campus is expanded.

The board also plans a two-year maintenance and operation levy to replace the current one, which expires next year. The proposed amount is $771,840 in 1999 and $793,560 in 2000, a 2.5 percent increase each year from the current levy.

Aside from a few technological updates,”it’s mainly just a hold-the-line levy,” Berquam said.

It would cost an estimated $383 in 1999 and $386 the following year for the owner of a $100,000 home.

The West Plains districts’ plans for the February election include:

Cheney School District will put a two-year replacement maintenance and operation levy before voters. The levy would raise about $3.8 million in 1999 and $4 million in 2000 for a tax rate for the owner of a $100,000 home of about $382 the first year and $379 the second year.

Cheney voters will also decide on a separate two-year capital levy of $2.1 million that would fund updated instructional technology as well as $280,000 for structural improvements to Cheney Middle School.

This levy would mean an estimated tax rate of $101 in 1999 and $105 in 2000 for the owner of a $100,000 home.

Medical Lake School District, meanwhile, is simply looking to maintain the amount of the district’s current maintenance and operations levy.

The proposed two-year replacement levy would raise $354,221 in 1999 and $361,305 in 2000. It would cost the owner of a $100,000 home approximately $175 per year.

“It’s an exact replication of what we have now,” said Superintendent Neal Powell. “We’re interested in keeping the rate the same.”

Neither district plans to place a bond issue on the ballot.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: BOARD MEETING The Liberty School Board will meet at 7 p.m. tonight in the Liberty Junior High School cafeteria.