The Mead School District is in the final week of a campaign to convince voters to approve two ballot measures.
The first would renew the district’s three-year maintenance-and-operations levy. That money would supplement what the district receives from the state. The second is much larger. It’s a $114 million bond issue that would allow Mead to build two new schools and a new sports and performing arts venue.
In the years before technology became so embedded in our lives, a school district open house to explain the details of a levy and bond issue might have drawn a big crowd. So when I arrived at Farwell Elementary School one evening, I was surprised to find the event would include five district administrators, one school board member and me. I’m not sure Superintendent Tom Rockefeller was surprised.
“One of the interesting things is how social media and the Internet has changed things because we have extremely detailed information on our website that discusses everything from our 25-year plan to what we’ve got planned with this bond and what the specific different projects that are in this bond,” Rockefeller said.
So, to those specifics.
“The number one thing that we’ve got going right now is that we grew several hundred kids. In fact, this last month we grew another 26 kids, I believe, on our enrollment,” Rockefeller said.
So there’s the urgency for the district. Find more space for a rapidly-growing student population. It’s the main theme of this campaign video, created by Mead alum Mitch Davis.
“Hear that truck?" says a child's voice. "That’s another family moving to the Mead School District. It’s not hard to see why. The Mead School District has a great reputation. That’s why my family moved here from California just last year. In fact, in the next decade, the district is expected to grow by nearly three thousand students. Where in the heck are we going to put them all?”
“We have 68 acres up on the prairie and we’re going to put a middle school up there, so that will give us three middle schools across the district. We’re going to move our sixth graders up to the middle school and that will free all of that space, plus we need to build another elementary just to stay ahead,” Rockefeller said.
If this bond passes and the district starts building, Rockefeller says administrators would then focus next on adding new space for high school students.
“And then we’re looking at a fairly comprehensive performing arts and athletic complex,” he said.
That would be built at the site of the 92-year-old former middle school and junior high in the town of Mead. It would seat about 4,500 people for home football games for Mead and Mount Spokane High Schools and for the district’s other outdoor sports and activities.
“We do have large marching bands that are very competitive. We also have color guard that’s a competitive flag team," Rockefeller said. "And we have an overabundance of clubs and private groups that want to use our facilities.”
The bond also calls for new transportation and maintenance facilities, to be built across the street from the old middle School.
As Rockefeller finished his explanation, we looked up to find a community member named Luanna Morris walking in to join the meeting.
“I’m the whole audience, am I?” Morris said.
“Yeah. You’re it," responded one of the administrators. "Do you have a question?"
“I have a million questions,” Morris said.
Morris said she lives near the site of the proposed new facilities in Mead. She worries about the extra people, noise and light they would bring. Her concerns aren’t new. She’s already been talking about them with the district’s facilities and planning director, Ned Wendle. Here they renewed their conversation.
“I’d be more than happy to sit and figure out how we can make that landscaping work. We want to be good neighbors. Right now, you’ve got 120 buses in your backyard,” Wendle said.
“Yes, but there’s also a lovely large building that blocks it from the house at the end of the street, so there’s a little sound buffer with that,” Morris said.
The new bond would replace an expiring bond issue. The new rate is 22-cents-per-thousand less than the expiring rate. The bond needs 60% 'yes' votes to be approved and a certain number of people need to cast ballots to validate the election. There is no such validation requirement for the levy and it needs only a simple majority to pass.
Ballots need to be returned or postmarked by February 13 to be counted.
