Mead Residents Gather To Support Bond Measure
Two hundred residents in the Mead School District gathered at Mead High School Tuesday night at a rally to support a March 10 bond and levy measure which would improve the school and many others in the district.
The event rally was sponsored by the Citizens Planning Committee.
The $25 million bond request is the result of the CPC’s recommendation to the board of directors. The committee put modernizing Mead at the top of the district’s priority list.
CPC co-chair Denny Denholm made it clear that the volunteer-based CPC paid the district to use the school for its rally.
He said the CPC hopes to have more rallies in the near future.
If the district is looking for an eloquent spokesperson to get out the message about how poor conditions are at Mead, they may not have to look farther than Mead senior Angela Ciabattari.
The Associated Student Body vice president takes a college advanced placement course in a room that’s sandwiched between a history and band class. The only barriers are temporary walls.
“Between the film projector from history and the percussions from the band room, it’s absolutely impossible to concentrate,” she said.
“I think this is an important issue,” she said. “The school is lacking a lot of necessary components for learning.”
The district says the budgeted cost of building Mt. Spokane in 1993 was $37.5 million, compared to today’s budgeted cost to modernize Mead of $31.5 million. The cost to build Mt. Spokane today would be $43 million.
The bond, if approved, would increase Mead taxes 55 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. That’s $55 for a $100,000 home.
Test scores
Here is a list of how students in the four outlying North Side school districts performed in the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills for fourth and eighth graders and the Curriculum Frameworks Assessment System for high school juniors in 1997.
A 50 percentile score means students scored, on average, better than half the students tested across the state, and worse than the other half.
Deer Park: Fourth graders scored 51 in reading and language and a 63 in math. Eighth graders scored 53 in reading, 48 in language and 47 in math.
High school juniors scored 47 in language, 46 in social studies, 47 in science and 45 in math.
Mead: Fourth graders scored 57 in reading, 58 in language and 57 math. Eighth graders scored 62 in reading, 57 in language and 64 in math.
Juniors scored 55 in language, 56 in social studies, 62 in math and 60 in science.
Nine Mile Falls: Fourth graders scored 56 in reading, 63 in language and 56 in math. Eighth graders scored 52 in reading, 59 in language and 60 in math.
Juniors scored 58 in language, 58 in social studies, 68 in math and 62 in science.
Riverside: Fourth graders scored 48 in reading, 51 in language and 50 in math. Eighth graders scored 55 in reading, 49 in language and 58 in math.
Juniors scored 51 in language, 55 in social studies, 60 in math and 54 in science.
Levy’s and bonds
Even with the bond passed to pay for district-wide remodeling in 1995, Deer Park School District patrons pay among the lowest school taxes in Spokane County, according to figures from the assessor’s office.
In 1997, Deer Park citizens paid a combined $4.95 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in bonds and levies.
Estimated total tax rates per $1,000 of assessed valuation for 1998 are Deer Park, $4.81; Mead, $6.33; Riverside, $6.60; and Nine Mile, $7.02
They said it…
An east coast newspaper held a contest where entrants ages 4 to 15 were asked to imitate “Deep Thoughts” by Jack Handey. Here are a few selections:
“I believe you should live each day as if it is your last, which is why I don’t have any clean laundry because, come on, who wants to wash clothes on the last day of their life.”
“Give me the strength to change the things I can, the grace to accept the things I cannot, and a great big bag of money.
“Home is where the house is.”
, DataTimes