The Lake Washington School District convened a Long Term Facilities Planning Task Force in late 2014. In August 2015, the district published the task force’s report and a separate bond committee recommended the $398 million construction bond measure for the April 26 ballot.
The school district implies that all 63 members of the task force unanimously supported the conclusions and recommendations for new school construction. I was a member of the task force and I did not support the task force’s final report. I do not support the proposed April 26 bond measure because it does not build adequate new classroom space that the district needs immediately.
The task force was impaired by a lack of data for existing facilities. At every meeting, task force members asked the district to conduct a district-wide space audit to determine how space was being used. The district refused. The district kept track of classroom capacity on one page. Information about auxiliary spaces (libraries, gymnasiums, science labs, restrooms) was not provided. Enrollment projections were not based on demographics. The district knew little about regional planning and had never read the cities’ comprehensive plans. The district conducted frequent online surveys and a significant part of every task force meeting was spent reviewing survey results.
When task force members toured schools, numerous discrepancies with classroom counts were found. There was poor oversight of school facilities by the district administration. It became clear that the district had a management void. For the March 2015 task force meeting, I submitted the following recommendation for discussion: (it was never added to the agenda)
The district needs to hire a facilities manager immediately who has the authority and responsibility to coordinate district-wide classroom utilization in all the schools in order to track and maximize classroom resource allocation and usage. Simply put: we need someone to be comprehensively in charge of facilities management in this district.
Who is in charge of facilities planning? From observations during the eight months of task force meetings, it appears that Deputy Superintendent Janene Fogard does all of the long-term and short-term facilities planning for the entire district — on a part-time basis.
The lack of a full-time facilities planning director has been an ongoing problem. In 2013, Rosa Parks Elementary in Redmond Ridge was severely overcrowded while nearby Wilder Elementary was half vacant. Newly appointed Superintendent Traci Pierce stepped in and transferred 250 Redmond Ridge students from Rosa Parks to Wilder. In 2014, the district re-boundary process was assigned to a curriculum superintendent who had no experience with facilities planning and was unfamiliar with the region. Besides not having a director of facilities planning, there isn’t a vacant position that the district is looking to fill — so the planning process is shuffled among superintendents.
Without an inventory of existing classroom space and with vague enrollment projections, the district has proposed a $398 million bond measure. This bond measure will build only two new elementary schools and a new middle school. Additional new schools will be built when voters approve future bond measures in 2018, 2022 and 2026.
Severe overcrowding in our schools, lack of data for decision making, bond measures that require approval of future bond measures, and even the formation of the Long-Term Facilities Planning Task Force are all symptoms of the need for a full-time director of facilities planning. Community members should contact the district and demand that a full-time facilities director be hired so that our school buildings are competently planned, managed and maintained. Voters should also think carefully about the $398 million bond measure in April.
Susan Wilkins, Redmond
