I have lived in the Lake Washington School District for 50 years and have experienced our unprepared growth. Our four children were bused for miles to find school space. I have built and remodeled over 100 schools from Alaska to the southern border of Washington.

The Reporter stated that the Lake Washington School Board voted to submit two levies to voters for the February ballot. During our 50 years, we have witnessed the building of new schools in our district – then the demolition of them after 30 years to build a more ugly replacement. A less costly remodel would have sufficed.

We were more startled when the subject of the return to four-year high schools was contemplated.

I was fortunate during my grade school days to attend the Bellingham Normal Grade School (now Western Washington University). We were ready to attend a four year high school when the state and the teacher’s college decided to start a ninth grade to become a junior high school. The reason for the change was that a freshman would not be able to overcome a large age differential. Does the LWSD have to prove this all over again?

This reminds me of our big arguments many years ago about the wonderful open classroom concept for Juanita High School. As it turned out only the athletic portion was ideal and the open classroom had to be partitioned to provide for efficient teaching. Two of our children went to Redmond High School and two went to Juanita. The two at Redmond received the better training.

After civil engineering at the UW, I worked for the Seattle Schools as field engineer for their largest building program. In 1963, I started Prime Construction. After retirement, I worked with Value Engineering teams to upgrade schools and colleges. I suggest that the LWSD seriously review their future program.

Larry Johnson, Kirkland