A focus on overcrowding . . .

Last week Channel 5 did another piece on our overcrowding problems that was shared on Living in A Custodial World, high school Head Custodian Rick Bergum's blog.  In his post, he raises the issue of increased operating costs if we were to implement year-round, multi-track or double shift delivery models.  He is accurate in his assessment as either of these options would increase not only energy and material costs, but would also result in increased staffing costs. 

Though it would result in increased operating costs the bigger question is what impact would it have on our school culture and program.  That is the question that voters in our school community will decide.  With a slower increase in student enrollment we have time to consider long term solutions, but we are still today in a situation where we are over crowded with few options to house more students at all grade level bands. At some point in the coming years we will need additional classrooms and infrastructure spaces or we will need to change our delivery model.

If you follow the e-mail string on the Channel 5 post you get a good idea of the struggle we face as commenters share their thinking.  Of particular interest is an exchange between ScottG and Cougsrback.  Below Cougsrback captures our situation.  Unfortunately not all understand or agree with this position.

ScottG apparently has no knowledge of the situation in the Tahoma School District or how Washington schools are funded. Planning has been in place for some time. Unfortunately, voters are in no mood to approve property taxes to pay for additional facilities. Existing property taxes are not sufficient to build more schools. Those taxes pay for operations and a bond that was approved in 1997. Since then, the school district has grown significantly and is again in need of more classrooms. This district has stretched its resources to the maximum and has made good use of tax dollars. Until voters approve a bond measure there are very limited options to deal with the overcrowding.

The School Board is currently reviewing proposlas from a Citizen Review Committee.  I will share more as they review the options and make both short and longterm decisions for housing current and projected student enrollment.  The citizen report can be found here.