Planning a bond measure . .

As many of you may know, we have been planning for a necessary bond measure for a number of years. The bond revenue is needed to add classrooms for projected growth and to do major repair and renovation to existing buildings. The original plan was to go before the voters in the spring of 2010, but the Board made the decision to move that vote forward one year to the spring of 2011. They made this change because of the economic situation and because the demographic projections suggested that growth could be accommodated without significant issues for an additional year.





With the recent changes to the elementary attendance areas we are approaching the point where there is little room for growth in any of the existing buildings. In the absence of new classrooms, we will be looking at the need to increase class sizes or look to an alternative delivery model. The same situation is true at Tahoma Junior High and also at Tahoma High School where aging portables need to be replaced.

Major components of the proposed bond measure include the following.
· Renovation and new classrooms at Tahoma High School
· Renovation and new classrooms at Tahoma Junior High
· Renovation and new classrooms at Cedar River Middle School
· Replacing Lake Wilderness Elementary with a new school
· Constructing a new elementary school on property adjacent to the Junior High

One of the necessary components to qualify for state funding for the projects is called the Educational Specifications process. It is designed to identify the programmatic, functional, spatial, and environmental requirements of a new facility in written and graphic form. On Tuesday, the Board was presented with draft copies of the educational specifications for renovation and new construction at Tahoma High School and Tahoma Junior High. A link to the high school document can be found here and to the junior high document here. The process for Cedar River and the prototype to replace Lake Wilderness and construct a new elementary will begin in September.

The draft documents were developed by a team of staff members and community members facilitated by representatives from our architectural firm, the DLR Group. They focused on our Classroom 10 goals to look at the functions for new and renovated spaces and came up with a design model such as shown in the diagram below. The yellow arrows identify where walls and doors can be moved to create larger spaces and the inclusion of small group meeting areas outside the classroom space provide flexibility for students and staff. There is much more to learn about the specific areas that will be added and renovated in the linked documents.


Please remember that these are recommendations and much additional work is necessary before we see an actual drawing and final decisions on bond components are made. It is, however, exciting to see how we are moving forward to create environments that meet our projected growth needs and that align with our Classroom 10 goals.