Napavine School District Superintendent Rick Jones stands at the epicenter of the Napavine Middle School in March 2014. The school is made up of four portables covered by a large roof adjacent to the main high school.
Voters within the Napavine School District have 10 days to submit their ballots for the April 28 special election, which includes a capital bond for the district in the amount of $17.995 million.
With a state match of $9.6 million, the bond would total $27.605 million and would remodel the high school, adding nine classrooms, and would include a middle school wing to house the district’s seventh- and eighth-graders currently attending classes in portable units.
The middle school wing would include seven classrooms, a small student commons area, a servicing kitchen, an additional gym and extra locker rooms.
Superintendent of Napavine Rick Jones held a number of community meetings to educate the public on the bond and the estimated tax rate.
Currently, taxpayers pay 93 cents per $1,000 in assessed value for a bond already on the books, and if passed, the new bond would add another $2.53 per $1,000, raising the total to $3.46.
The increase has created some opposition, as community members have said the increase may be too much for the citizens to handle. Despite the jump in costs, supporters have voiced their opinions as well, stating the bond is needed as the aging facilities are outdated and need improvements.
One Napavine resident, John Hylton, has openly opposed the bond, and was part of a committee to install a large “Vote No” sign close to the school buildings.
The sign caused a stir on social media sites, which said its location is too close to the buildings, affecting the teachers and the students.
Hylton said the sign was never meant as a “slap in the face” to teachers, but instead the location was chosen to increase the amount of people who viewed the sign. The former school board member said the bond is asking too much of the community, increasing the bond rate by almost four times its current rate. Although the group supports a new school, Hylton said they are not in favor of the particular plan in place.
“Your schools is your heart beat of the community, and we need a new school. We all agree,” Hylton said. “But we also need a school that we can afford.”
Instead, Hylton spoke on behalf of the group against the bond and said the district should stick with a long-range plan that was developed when Hylton was on the school board. The plan would have added a high school wing to the school. The students currently housed in the portables would be moved into the annex, which was recently updated through an energy grant, while the high school students there would be moved into the new wing.
Supporters of the bond have created a Facebook page titled “Citizens for Napavine School Bond.” The forum has allowed people to express their thoughts on why the bond is a necessity.
Napavine Councilor Lionel Pinn wrote on the page as a citizen, encouraging voters to check the yes box.
“It will cost us some money to make it happen, but we are use(d) to making this happen, that’s what Americans are really good at,” Pinn wrote. “We do it for our city, our fire districts, we do it for our hospitals and we must find a way to do it for our kids.”
Another resident of Napavine said his yes vote is already in the mail.
Jim Pea, whose family has been apart of the Napavine School District in the early 1900s, said it is time to act.
“I don’t like taxes any more than the next person, but I fully support this upgrade of current facilities, which in my opinion has been neglected too long,” he wrote.
Although the opposing sides agree upon the common ground of improving school facilities, the final method of achieving that goal will come down to a count on April 28.
