Cheney School Board to send bond to voters

The Cheney School Board voted 4-0 at a Dec. 1 workshop to officially “direct district administration to work with bond counsel to prepare a resolution submitting such capital projects and bonds to the district’s voters on Feb. 14, 2017.”

In other words, the Cheney School District is trying a third time to get voters to approve a bond renovating the district’s high school. This time, however, the district’s $52 million proposal will also address overcrowding issues through expansion at three elementary schools, along with other improvements.

The district failed twice in 2015 to get the needed 60 percent to pass a $44.88 million bond that would have renovated and modernized just the high school.

Since then, district officials and members of the school board have been heavily involved in a process to discern public sentiments and perceptions towards growth in the district and how best to address it. That process has involved several online surveys coupled with a series of public meetings to gather input.

The feedback, along with work done by the district’s consulting firm, Design West, produced a proposal addressing overcrowding needs not only at the high school, but also at Betz Elementary School next door, Sunset Elementary School in Airway Heights and Windsor Elementary School on Hallett Road near Marshall. Along with a proposed relocation of the Three Springs High School to land near Cheney Middle School, and money for purchasing land for a future school, the final amount initially presented to the board last Thursday was $56.9 million.

There were some changes, however. Unlike the bonds passed in 2010 funding construction of two new middle schools and a new elementary school, the 2017 proposal contains no state matching funds.

Kassidy Probert, the district’s director of finance, told the board the district was eligible for some state assistance through about $2.2 million in un-housed student funding. Probert and Design West managing associate Ned Wamick added this amount was probably conservative, but would only likely increase by 10s of thousands of dollars and not millions.

In presenting the final proposal to the board, Superintendent Rob Roettger said he and staff were recommending proceeding with all aspects of the high school renovation — including constructing a 500-seat auditorium — with the exception of a $2.7 million, second-floor, 10-classroom shell. The proposal includes construction of 17 more classrooms at the high school to provide additional capacity for an estimated 1,600 students by 2028.

“By the time we get to this, it will be time to begin looking at a second high school,” Roettger said.

District officials also hope eliminating the second-floor shell sends a message to residents in Airway Heights that they have heard their complaints about being ignored in their request for a new school near them. Public feedback also included questions about when a second high school would be needed, something Roettger said will be the subject of continuing discussions, but which the district is not ready for just yet.

“At this time, with 1,200 students (at CHS), we don’t think it’s that time,” he said.

The school board was scheduled to take up consideration of the final approval of the bond, including the actual resolution and ballot language, at its Dec. 7 meeting. The deadline for submitting the bond resolution to Spokane County officials to be included on the February 2017 ballot is Dec. 16.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].