Medical Lake hopes to build new school

Thu., March 6, 2008

By Lisa Leinberger lisal@spokesman.com (509) 459-5449

Cheney residents to vote on levy

» Cheney Public Schools serves around 3,700 students throughout the West Plains and is growing. The district has a capital levy on the ballot to pay for new technology in schools and several capital projects, including a new warehouse, resurfacing of the high school parking lot, new bleachers for the high school football field and automatic doors for better wheelchair access to the buildings.

» The levy would cost $1.60 per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2009 and $1.55 per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2010. It should maintain the total tax rate in the district, since the voter-approved 2006 transportation vehicle fund levy it would replace will expire before any new funds are collected, and the overall assessed value has increased.

» This is the first technology levy the district has asked voters to approve since 1998. Superintendent Michael Dunn said the district has tried to keep costs low the last 10 years by applying for grants and making use of aging technology. The levy will help pay for new desktop computers for student use, replacement of teachers' computers, classroom presentation equipment, software support and licensing, server replacement, network switches, a phone system upgrade or replacement, and an identification card system.

» "If it passes," Dunn said, "we don't collect any funds until spring of 2009."

» The two-year levy is expected to raise $3.6 million each year.

MEDICAL LAKE – Voters within the Medical Lake School District will be asked to approve a $19,544,500 school bond in Tuesday’s election for a new elementary school. A supermajority of at least 60 percent of voters is needed to pass the measure.

The bond would cost taxpayers $1.70 per $1,000 of assessed property value to pay for a new school serving students in kindergarten through the third grade at the same location as Medical Lake Elementary School. The bond would also help pay for eight new classrooms at Medical Lake Middle School.

Superintendent Pam Veltri said the existing elementary school is 50 years old, and, while the building has been well maintained, it has electrical problems throughout.

Teachers must coordinate the use of presentation equipment to avoid a power failure at the school, she said, adding that there is no air conditioning and that fire safety equipment is no longer adequate.

Veltri said the school would need to be rewired, but, because there is encapsulated asbestos, a hazardous material, throughout the building, it wouldn’t be safe for students to be in the building.

“You’re getting to the point where it is less expensive to build a new one,” Veltri said.

The school houses 325 students and is full. The new school would house 350 students in a district that serves 2,200 students. It would be built around the existing school so students could still attend classes during construction. When the new building is finished, the old one will be torn down.

The new school would cost approximately $15.8 million.

The bond would also help to pay for eight new classrooms at Medical Lake Middle School to replace portable classrooms.

The middle school was built in the early 1970s and has been upgraded over the years using maintenance and operations funds.

The new classrooms will replace the portable classrooms the school has been using and students will no longer have to go outside to get to their classrooms. They will also have access to the restrooms in the main school building, which will reduce the amount of time they miss when they use the facilities.

The cost of the middle school project is approximately $3.7 million.

There would be no matching state funds for the project, since the district used up its allotted matching funds for the construction of Hallett Elementary School, built in 1994 to serve students in fourth, fifth and sixth grades.