From the outside looking in, Glacier Peak and Snohomish

click to see photos

As the Snohomish area has enjoyed significant growth over the last decade, so has the Snohomish school district. To accommodate that growth the Snohomish school district passed two construction bonds that built two high schools, one middle school, three elementary schools and a pool. In addition, remodeled and made additions to one middle school.

From the outside looking in it would seem that the District has really stepped up in modernizing their facilities and that is true. However, at a closer look you will see fractures in their planning and funding of each capital project.

First, let us make it clear that spending money south of the river is never very popular. Second, let us tell you that four of the five district board members live north of the river and have or have had children attending Snohomish high school. The fifth board member has no children attending school.

Why does that matter? We will demonstrate through countless hours of research, photos, records requests and interviews, equal is not always equal.

In the rush to construct a second high school, the district did not do their homework on what the true cost of what two high schools and an elementary would be. They became aware of the shortfall even as the construction of the new high school began and started cutting elements from the project almost immediately.

You might say, who cares, its water over the bridge at this point. Moreover, if you live north of the river you would be completely satisfied with what we have today. If you live south of the river, you may want to pay attention to this series of articles.

Snohomish school district is an awesome place for your children to be educated no matter what school you choose. The intent of this series of articles is to put light on areas of inequity that, in our view, are meant to rein-in the popularity and success of the second high school.

From 2008 thru 2015 school years, the second high school had 1308 incoming variances, over that same period the old high school had 456 incoming variances. Here is the kicker; the second high school had only 240 releases (outgoing) whereas the old high school had 632 releases.

Total enrollment for the second high school has gone from 1396 to 1704 with a capacity of 1500. The old high school has gone from 1732 to 1780 and a capacity of 1800, with addition of building E.

Again, you may say, who cares?

Another fun fact; when you factor in several variables to compare the construction costs of both high schools you could conclude that the district spent nearly 30-40 million more on the old high school then the new one. That number could be even higher if you were to exclude things that the old school did not need to construct such as baseball, football and softball fields thus putting the money towards construction amenities. The official number from the accounting office is nearly 13 million more. As a side note, 98296 pays nearly 6 million more per year in property taxes than 98290.

What does all this mean?

Well nothing if the same attention to detail would’ve been used to design and construct the second high school. Truth be told, the second high school was never given the care and commitment of purpose that it deserved.

We have gathered dozens upon dozens of choices made for one and not for the other. Big budget items that were affordable for one and not for the other. We have also gathered together instances of conditions that exist at one and not at the other such as cleanliness, maintenance and repair.

Many of these issues do not necessarily originate at the district office. In fact, the response from Dr. Mester when confronted on any specific issue is immediate action. No, this stems from something far deeper in the good’ol boys network and distain for the second high school.

Any one, two, or half dozen items of unequitable spending would be considered wining. We have collected far more than that, as we will demonstrate in the next article in the series called, Hills and Valleys.

Residents should be outraged with the direction the second high school is headed if there isn’t a wakeup call to those that make the decisions.

The work done on the old high school should be worn as a badge of honor by district residents but that’s no reason to forget the obligation to the second school.