Together Spokane: Here’s how the $440 million schools and parks tax proposals would touch the North Central High School boundary

Though it’s officially named “North Central High School,” some school officials dubbed the patchwork school “the SeaTac project that’s never-ending,” or “A Tale of Two Cities,” for the piecemeal updates made over the years.

“As ‘A Tale of Two Cities,’ we have this beautiful north end of our building with upgraded facilities and upgraded labs,” North Central Principal Tami McCracken told a crowd at a recent town hall event at her school. “At the south end of the building, it’s in need of significant upgrades and repairs.”

Built in 1982 and partially renovated or expanded through bonds passed in 1998, 2009 and 2015, the latest upgrades to the school would be funded through Spokane Public Schools’ $200 million bond proposal on November ballots.

It’s one of around 200 projects the school district seeks to fund through the property tax measure in conjunction with the city parks department, which has a $240 million tax levy on ballots at the same time. The two are separate ballot items, but if they both pass schools and parks would partner to accomplish more projects for less overall spending.

“Together Spokane,” as the dual campaign is called, promises to touch every corner of the city in small and large ways. The renovations to the high school is the largest project that would be funded through the proposals within the North Central High School boundary, the centermost geographic chunk of the city according to district boundaries that determine which kids go to what high school.

North Central is bound by city limits to the west, the Spokane River to the south and carving out parts of University District, East Central and Logan neighborhoods for a jagged eastern border, eventually connecting to Wellesley as its northern border.

The North Central High School boundary is the only one without a major parks-only project, neither getting one of the three new parks or three major parks renovations.

But it would still benefit from the many citywide commitments to improve parks, including through renovated bathrooms, improved maintenance and increased security by hiring additional park rangers.

The Palisades Park trailhead would also be replaced, and another trailhead would be developed for access to the newly acquired Rimrock to Riverside portion of the park.

Work at North Central would direct funding to remodel the southside of the school, the most in need of attention, McCracken said, as well as increase classroom space to “right size” the space for its enrollment of over 1,600 students.

Bond funding would pay to remodel the oldest half of the school on the corner of Maxwell Avenue and Howard Street, including updating classrooms, the library, offices, auditorium and band and choir rooms in phases.

The district estimates that if the school bond is approved property owners will pay $1.36 per $1,000 assessed property value next year on school bond debt. That’s only up 2 cents on the rate that taxpayers in the Spokane district pay for school bonds this year. The amount is expected to rise to by an average of 2% to 3% a year, according to the district website.

The students don’t know much about the political intricacies of a bond, nor the property tax implications of the proposal, but they’re well aware of the quirks of their aging facility evident in their school days.

In southern classrooms upstairs, the school’s heating system is audible in an off-and-on whistle that students compare to a distant honking of a clown or a balloon letting out air or a fly buzzing near one’s ear. It’s distracting, students said.

Also at the school’s south end is a home economics style classroom where student chefs whip up dishes in the school’s ProStart program that teaches industrial-level cooking in a competitive environment. North Central has sent students to a national ProStart competition, including four seniors last year.

The classroom, with a layout meant to look like a home kitchen rather than an industrial space, would be updated with bond funding.

“It was meant for home economics. It was meant to teach girls how to be wives and moms,” McCracken said. “That’s what that kitchen was intended for, and yet we sent the only group of students ever from the Spokane area to nationals and culinary arts. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had a professional kitchen to support those so that students could create their own personal pathway for success?”

Also slated for improvements is the sound and lights system in the school’s auditorium, which still uses floppy disks and other relics for equipment. Students complain of sound issues when they hold student council in the auditorium, their microphones regularly going out.

“When our students do their school musical, sometimes you can hear them singing, but sometimes you can’t,” McCracken said.

Each high school auditorium would get upgraded sound and light systems that would allow anyone to rent the space without needing someone familiar with North Central’s sound system to operate.

In another bid to improve public access, the sport fields on North Central’s campus would each be replaced with all-weather turf rather than grass fields with lighting installed for after-dark play. The current fields often accumulate swampy pools after rain or snow events due to the rocky ground below the grass that doesn’t drain adequately, McCracken said, taking “hours and hours” to prepare for baseball games, for example.

The space wouldn’t just be for schoolkids to use; the parks department eyes the space for potential adult sports opportunities.

“We really want people to live, work and recreate downtown,” said Parks Director Garrett Jones. “We don’t have that opportunity right now, and so this will really provide that opportunity to where we can come in as a city and program around adult recreation.”

The district would also build more parking in the area, with more stalls built at the site of an old post office the district owns along Washington Street and a parking structure built next to the school’s baseball field.

“With this new addition, with these turf fields and this lighting, we could be a center hub right here in the middle of the city, and we’re ready for it,” McCracken said.

Reporter Emry Dinman contributed to this story.