A recent letter to The Reporter from Chuck Miller questioned the Tahoma School District’s school construction plans. Thank you for the opportunity to respond and clarify the school district’s actions and intent.

In his letter, Mr. Miller raised three questions: Why is the school district building a new Lake Wilderness Elementary School instead of building a new school in the south part of the school district, where a large share of the district’s elementary school-age students reside? Did the school district intentionally inflate the estimated cost of the new Tahoma High School in order to have “extra money” to build a new Lake Wilderness Elementary? Is the district planning “to submit another levy” to build a school in the south end of the district?

I will answer Mr. Miller’s first two questions by saying that the 2013 construction bond measure was intended to reduce overcrowding in the district. It had three goals: build a new Tahoma High School, modernize Lake Wilderness Elementary School and reduce enrollment there, and make repairs, modifications and upgrades to existing schools. Two things happened after the bond passed that led to the decision to build a new Lake Wilderness Elementary: efforts by the school district to obtain a larger amount of state funding were successful and contingency funds from construction of the new high school became available. There was no attempt to inflate construction costs. Rather, some good luck and excellent work by the high school contractor and architect resulted in cost savings that could be put toward construction of a new Lake Wilderness Elementary. Consideration was given to building an elementary school on district property adjacent to Tahoma Junior High but the cost and potential legal issues made that option undesirable.

The answer to Mr. Miller’s final question should come as good news to him and other Tahoma taxpayers: there are no plans to ask for additional construction funds from the community. We take very seriously our responsibility to spend tax dollars wisely. A citizen oversight committee meets regularly to review how bond funds are being spent. We welcome their participation because we deeply appreciate the community’s support of the 2013 bond measure. We are committed to deliver what was promised: a new high school and new elementary school that the entire community can point to with pride. At the same time, we are improving existing schools and making changes necessary to provide students with first-rate facilities.

A committee of community members is working diligently to create new elementary school and middle school attendance boundaries that will go into effect when we add two elementary schools in the 2017-18 school year by converting our existing middle schools. Those two schools will create enough classroom space to relieve the severe overcrowding in our current four elementary schools. Opening the new high school allows us to convert the existing high school and junior high campuses into middle schools for grades 6-8, which provides those students with facilities on par with any in the state.

We want to thank Mr. Miller and all Tahoma taxpayers for providing us with the funds that will make this possible. That support will benefit young people in this community for many years to come.

Kevin Patterson

Director of Communication

Tahoma School District