‘We Are Listening:’ Toledo School Board Member Pitches Fifth Bond Attempt at Community Meeting

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The Toledo School Board refuses to abandon its efforts to build a new high school that meets today’s building codes.

The fifth bond proposal the Toledo School District wants to put in front of voters is the sweetest deal to date, supporters say. If residents vote to pass a $7 million bond measure, the Toledo School District will receive a $10 million grant from the state and another $8 million in state School Construction Assistance Program funding.

That would give Toledo a $25 million budget to construct a new high school, allowing the district to build a new high school for less local money than it would cost to repair the current one. 

This is Toledo’s fifth attempt to pass a bond to improve its high school. After the four failed attempts, the district is looking for more feedback this time around. However, residents in favor of a bond measure are beginning to get frustrated. If voters do not approve the latest bond proposal, some residents may relocate.

“I’ve heard from a lot of people, who have kids in the district, that they are going to be looking at moving,” said Brad Dykstra, chairman of the Toledo School Board. “I’ll include myself in that list. It’s hard to think of a community, that when the state is willing to contribute over 70 percent of a new building cost, that the community would not also support that.”

Dykstra spoke about the bond at the annual Vision:TOLEDO big community meeting Thursday night.

He said if Toledo chooses a 21-year bond, the rate would be roughly $0.99 per $1,000 of assessed property value. If the district runs a 15-year bond, the rate would be about $1.27 per $1,000.

“When the original high school was built, the tax rate was $4.88 per $1,000,” Dykstra said. “That’s from the assessor’s office. So that’s what residents were paying in 1975, was $4.88 per $1,000 — not inflation adjusted. Now that was a different tax system and it’s kind of like comparing apples and oranges, but I think it’s still important for the residents to consider that in 1975, the people who built that school thought it was important enough to spend $4.88 per $1,000 and we’re looking at $0.99 per $1,000, potentially.”

In recent years, other school districts in Lewis County have passed bonds for school improvement projects only by slim margins. Last year, voters in Centralia passed a $74 million bond measure to improve two elementary schools and its high school with roughly 62 percent of the vote. Three years ago, voters in Chehalis approved a $36 million bond for school renovations with just over 60 percent of the vote.

Bond measures require a 60 percent supermajority in Washington.

For Toledo to receive the state funding, 60 percent of voters must pass a bond measure prior to June 30, 2019.

“The biggest pushback we’ve gotten is people tell us time and time again ‘you’re not listening,’” Dykstra told The Chronicle. “Our challenge is, we are listening. Each bond has been different. The last three, over 50 percent of the people have supported it. So we can’t ignore the people that support it, but we also have to recognize the people who haven’t supported it and try to address those challenges. We understand it basically boils down to cost. They can’t support that much on their tax bill.” 



Toledo School District began reaching out to state legislators last fall for help. The District contacted Senator John Braun, R-Centralia, Representative Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, and Representative Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama.

Orcutt attended Toledo’s annual community meeting on Thursday night to discuss the bond. He noted there are 295 school districts.

“We are not doing this for every district,” Orcutt said. He discussed the strain that taxes can put on a community as small as Toledo. “You, as taxpayers, deserve assistance,” he said.

At the end of the meeting, there was only one public comment about the bond. It came from Jim Echtle, the head track coach at Toledo High School, who pleaded with the community to support their students.

“You have 70 kids that run track at the high school,” Echtle said. “They run on dirt every day. We don’t have home track meets because nobody wants to run on our dirt. Your kids are doing their share — they’re great.”

Dykstra said the most notable upgrade the school has received since it was built in 1974 was new carpet.

“There is no seismic reinforcement,” Dykstra said. “So in the event of an earthquake or something, potentially, it could collapse on itself. It wouldn’t meet today’s building codes at all. The windows are single-paned; the roof has many leaks that we have patched over the years. Some of the HVAC system is original, it has heating and cooling issues, the electrical system is dated. There’s only a few outlets in each room, so we can’t even have computers in every room.” 

Dykstra said the biggest obstacle to pass a bond measure in Toledo has been misinformation.

“We’ve heard people talk about consolidation with schools,” Dykstra said. “Currently looking at our other district, that would increase people’s tax rate — and there would still need to be a building to house those students, such as Winlock. They have a higher tax rate than us. So if we were to consolidate with Winlock, Toledo would absorb Winlock’s tax rate, which is higher. They would still have to construct a new building. So it wouldn’t necessarily solve the problems.”

If voters do pass the bond measure, the $10 million grant will be the single largest grant the district has ever received.

“In the long term, we’ll have a new building and we’ll be able to provide our kids with a competitive educational environment,” Dykstra said. “As the world is today, when our kids graduate, they compete with everybody across the world — not just 20 miles north or south. They have to be able to compete with everybody.”