Throwback Thursday

It was suggested to me to have a "Throwback Thursday"where we revisit what the district was going to do at a previous place in time.  (Luckily this reader also provided the topic.  Also, because district staff have a bad habit of not dating documents, I'll guess this was about 2009.)

Here is the Future BEX IV list, circa BTA III. 

From my reader's comments:

Here is the list of the future BEX IV projects that was created as part of the BTA III levy process. During BTA III, there was a concerted effort to NOT spend money in BTA on projects that would be managed in BEX IV. The contract from this version to the final BEX IV plan is rather stunning as the capacity problem began to escalate.

This list was comprised of many projects, most of which were also deferred from BEX III. This is how a school like Arbor Heights can wind up in really bad shape. Don't fund ___ in this round, because it is getting funded in the next round. Schools like John Rogers are current in this situation. JR has been on every BEX plan and then deferred to the next cycle.

Notice that all of the middle schools, except Madison and Hamilton are on this list. There was once a plan to get all the middle schools modern updates. At a minimum, BTA should include an auditorium and modern science labs for all of the schools that don't have one. An separate auditorium and cafeteria is critical for running a school at full capacity. 

 So what happened?  

Jane Addams DID become a K-8, only to move that K-8 and have it become a middle school. 

None of the comprehensive middle schools had a renovation (except Denny which got a new building under BEX III.)

Arbor Heights, Broadview-Thomson, Green Lake, Kimball,

Staff said that both North Beach, Olympic Hills, Pinehurst, Sacajawea, Schmitz Park, View Ridge, Viewlands, Wedgewood, Rogers and Northgate needed to be replaced and their capacity expanded.   (See a pattern?  Nearly all in the NE.)  Roxhill was to be replaced at the old Denny site. 

Lincoln was said to be seismically deficient. 

I have to smile at the number of times that a "historic renovation" is noted for some buildings. The costs are so much higher with a historic building that I have to wonder what will happen when more buildings reach the end of their lives.

One huge issue I have with BTA is that the district only gives vague outlines of what actually gets done.  Is the entire list - as presented to voters -what actually happens?  It's hard to say.  In pushing BTA, the district touts a laundry list of things that got done but never compares it to what was promises or what might have NOT happen for some other project. 

One thing to note is that Dow Constantine, KC Executive, is now talking about his birth-to-five initiative for this fall's election.  (We can have a longer discussion of these coming election issues in a separate thread.)  As well, the Mayor's transportation initiative is coming up.   Constantine wants a fairly modest $65M while the Mayor wants $900M over nine years. 

And BTA IV would come after this.  I personally believe that Seattle voters are very generous but something has to give in terms of asking people to add more and more to their property taxes.  Someone may lose at the ballot box.