The Hoquiam School Board unanimously approved during a Wednesday special meeting a $42 million capital projects bond that will appear on the ballots of Hoquiam voters next February.
Details of the proposed bond are outlined in a bond report, available on the district’s website and prepared by KMB Architects. The report is based on decisions of a 27-member district bond committee over the last six weeks.
Despite its approval, details of the “interim” bond report have not yet been finalized, said Jeff Feeney, director of education management with KMB. A final report will be released in October, he said.
Should voters approve the bond in February, Feeney projects the district will receive an additional $22 million in matching construction funds from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and total project costs are about $61 million, devoted nearly entirely to the modernization of the district’s aging campuses.
“I think this is one of the most important things we have done for quite a while, to ask our community to support a bond like this and support the improvement of our schools here in Hoquiam,” Hoquiam School Board President Chris Eide said Wednesday. “It’s a long time coming, though, Hoquiam High School has needed some improvements for quite a while.”
Much of the proposed bond money will go toward internal infrastructure projects not necessarily visible to the public eye, but that strengthen degrading bones of decades-old buildings.
Earlier this year, Hoquiam Superintendent Mike Villarreal likened his district to a rundown car with a blinking engine light. The bond is necessary partially because dwindling student enrollment has left the district with less apportioned state funding for maintenance around the district.
District buildings currently span a little more than 300,000 square feet, and only enough students to fill about 175,000 square feet. The school board voted in May to close the 37,000-square-foot Central Elementary, no earlier than 2025, to cut unnecessary and costly space.
50-year-old Hoquiam High School will gobble up the majority of construction funds — about $52 million — with projects including a roof replacement, new HVAC system and electrical, plumping, sprinkler and storm upgrades, plus ADA and security improvements, among others.
Emerson Elementary and Hoquiam Middle School are in need of similar work, and the bond devotes $3 million and $6.6 million to each, respectively.
“It’s not just improvements, we need to fix a lot of things that are obsolete and about ready to fail,” Eide said.
The bond committee, composed of district staff, administration and community members, made final decisions about which projects to include in the bond, and which to leave out. The committee voted at its final meeting in August to include a new auxiliary gym in the bond, and at an earlier meeting voted to indefinitely shut down the high school library and move it to “Building A” on campus, which will help consolidate square footage and maintenance costs.
The bond committee also decided on a new grade configuration for the district in order to “effectively utilize the current buildings to support the learning objectives of the district.” The bond report suggests that Hoquiam High School would serve grades seven through 12, the middle school grades four through six, and elementary schools grades kindergarten through third.
Hoquiam School Board member Hoki Moir emphasized the proposed grade reconfigurations, along with other parts of the bond, aren’t set in stone.
“There are pieces in this that are generalities,” Moir said, referencing the bond report. “It speaks to things like what our different building configurations are going to be, and we have not gotten to that point as a district yet, but we needed something written down to be in the state’s hands. It’s not something that holds our head above a chopping block.”
The bond committee ultimately decided on a proposal about $10 million dollars smaller than the maximum allowed under state law, which is based on a fraction of the total assessed value of the district.
Hoquiam voters in 2018 approved a $6.8 million bond for renovations at the high school and Lincoln Elementary School. Taxpayers currently pay $1.25 per $1,000 of assessed value for that bond, which will expire at the end of 2024. KMB’s bond report did not include figures for what a 2024 bond would cost Hoquiam property taxpayers, but Hoquiam Business Manager Keith Ounsted estimated earlier this month that a $40 million bond would equate to roughly $2.30 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
The bond will require a 60% supermajority to pass on February’s general election ballot.
“The work that the bond committee has done is extraordinary,” Eide said. “The two things that were always at the top of our minds were what’s best for the kids, and what’s best for the taxpayers.”
Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.
