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The_Jail_playground.JPG
Arbor Heights Elementary in West Seattle was built in 1948. A 2009 analysis gave the southwest Seattle school the worst rating of any building in the district. Students call this play area "the jail." (Linda Thomas photo)

Why public schools want $1.2 billion from Seattle taxpayers

February 3, 2013 @ 6:03 pm (Updated: 9:12 am - 2/4/13 )

"Ready, one, two, here we go. Bow, lift place. Bow, lift place."

Elementary school musicians lift their bows and place them on violins, as directed by the music teacher. The first-year violin students are slowly getting it as they begin to play in unison.

Their music program could go away if Seattle voters don't pass a three-year $552 million operations levy for the city's public schools.

Principal Christy Collins shows me around her school - Arbor Heights Elementary in West Seattle. A 2009 analysis gave the southwest Seattle school the worst rating of any building in the district in terms of educational adequacy.

"We try to make do as best we can," Collins says.

It's the poster child for why the Seattle School District says it needs a six-year $695 million capital levy to pass too. Both levy requests are on ballots voters need to have postmarked by February 12.

"This is what they call the jail," she says, as we walk by a sheltered play area contained by chain-link fences. "This is where they play when it's raining, and it's often raining."

Built in 1948, we walk past the area the kids refer to as the jail, down the fluorescent halls, past the classrooms with yellowing Plexiglas windows and end up in Mr. Fisk's portable classroom. Some days it's so cold students can see their breath.

"Often the drapes are drawn in order to keep heat in," says Collins. "Mr. Fisk can no longer use his chalkboard because it won't even allow chalk on it anymore."

A blackboard that's so old it doesn't take chalk?

"We do have teachers who have used their own money, or they have used their allotment from the PTA which is a couple hundred dollars, to buy small pieces of whiteboard to put over their chalkboards," Collins explains. "As far as instruction, my concern would be that our students are at a disadvantage in this digital age."

A few weeks ago, the classroom didn't even have computers. Someone broke in after removed the hinge pins from a door on the portable.

"They were able to take the locked Mackintosh computers, brand new desktops, out in seconds before the alarm was tripped and police and security were able to come to the school," she says.

After describing the need, Collins explains how your tax money would be used.

"Making sure that special education services are there for students, learning assistance programs are there for students. Transportation. None of this is fully funded by the state and therefore we have to ask the voters to help support kids," Collins says.

"As far as these buildings go, trying to upgrade security, upgrade boilers, replace buildings that obviously need to be replaced or add capacity for those buildings that are bursting at the seams. It's something that I don't believe is extravagant."

Last year, the owner of a $400,000 house in Seattle paid about $1,000 in local school levy and bond taxes. If both levies pass, that bill would go up by $160.

"That's too much for me," says Marvin Anderson, who lives near a north Seattle middle school. "I don't have kids in school and I worry that schools waste too much money. I get tired of schools asking for a hand out every year. This year, I don't have it. Sorry."

The operations and capital levy requests of $1.25 billion are the district's largest request ever.

Seattle has one of the lowest levy rates in the region at under $3 per $1,000 of assessed value for property owners. Lake Washington Schools are at about $3.50, Issaquah Schools are $5.00 and both Federal Way and Shoreline schools are close to $6.00.

The Washington State Supreme Court has ruled the state does an inadequate job of funding public education, which is why districts ask voters for support. That will change, in theory, when the legislature finds a way to fully fund schools by 2014.

"The maintenance and operation is 26 percent of our budget. If that doesn't pass, that's a huge hit," says Collins. "That would be a huge hit for us and I think for all schools, I know for all schools."

By Linda Thomas

Full disclosure, I have two children in Seattle public schools

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (64)


  • Add A Comment

  • SeattleNative wrote...
    Good public schools with good teachers are a good thing.
    February 4, 2013 9:18 am
    Bad public schools with bad teachers are a bad thing.

    No public schools with no teachers is nothing.

    There's a reason that there is only ONE funding duty outlined in the Washington State Constitution. We need a well-educated populace to thrive as a society. Some public schools/ school districts in our area provide excellent educations (for those students willing to work for them).

    Dilapidated buildings do not facilitate optimal learning environments. Nor do they speak well of the priorities of the voters of the city.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • mnpat wrote...
    No where in the story do I read what are alternative options.....
    February 4, 2013 9:22 am
    Just the constant dread if they don't get the money. So I have to ask, if the school is such a state of disrepair, should it not be closed down and the property sold? Which of the Seattle schools received capitol funds from the district and what was it used for? In all fairness, the story pushes the help button but does not reflect a conserted effort by the reporter to give tax payers a true picture of how to make a decision in regards to school funding. It reminds me of a story when I ran for School Board many moons ago, according to certain district employees, they wanted a new stadium....the claim was the old stadium was unsafe, hazardous, stadium lights were blowing fuses and arcing electrical feeds, the doom went on, and it would only cost a home owner what they spent on 10 pizzas a year, what a deal!..............I asked if they had made a call to the local electrical and building official so we could get a cost anaysis and safety anaysis of the situation for a small fee, they hadn't done that....they renegged on the calamity and decided it was just because they wanted a new stadium,
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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    FOX NEWS caught in blatant, outright lie about school funding!
    February 4, 2013 9:32 am
    UNBELIEVABLE! Do these people have no shame, or do they simply assume that their audience accepts everything they claim at face value?

    In this article, Fox News specifically claims that Washington is among a group of "big spender states" when it comes to funding public education. Fox claims that Washington state spends over $16,000 per student per year:

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/26/public-school-student-spending-increases-state-funding-decreases/

    However, to verify this claim Fox cites a US government study showing how much money each state spends on a per student basis. If anybody follows *that* link within the article, (which Fox obviously hopes nobody will do), the chart actually shows that in Washington State the per student spending is $9,500....less than 31 of the other 50 states.

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  • M3 wrote...
    At *Chuck* and the others on the left fringe
    February 5, 2013 1:03 am
    Time to put down the hufpo pipe and bone up on your reading comprehension skills. First off your quote "big spender states" doesn't appear in the article. It states "Other top spenders include Washington ($16,408)". Those of us that read a lot know that this refers to DC... when national articles refer to the state they generally use the term 'Washington state'

    The article is not a commentary - just restating gov't facts which they accurately link to (data from 2008-2009). I'm guessing you didn't follow that *link*? There's a reason Fox has the biggest following of D's, R's and those of us independants

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  • Pair o'dimes wrote...
    So is money the problem or the solution?
    February 4, 2013 9:32 am
    Neither. In the Edmonds school district there are two choice schools that admit students by lottery. One is non-graded, the other requires parental volunteer time at the school. Both have test scores at the top of the district. Since the programs are different, the common denominator is the parents' value on education. Both are public schools, with unionized teachers. The problem with education in the U.S. is more societal than structural. And that offers no easy answers. We can demonize the teachers' unions or school administrators, but if the parents don't care, it won't matter. Choking the money from the system won't make it better either. Teachers are battling a culture that has devalued education, and costs are escalating because educators are desperately trying to find a fix. We test, try new methods, test again, try to blame someone, test again, and the problem is in the home, not the schools. Teachers spend too much time dealing with discipline and control, and don't have enough time to spend with students in over-crowded classrooms. On top of that, we have to worry about security issues as well. If the parents are to blame, why do we punish the students? How do we make schools a safe place where students become excited about learning regardless of their home lives? I hardly think having them come to dilapidated buildings with poor heating will help them to think of school as a good place to be.
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  • DesertRez wrote...
    I don't know but
    February 4, 2013 9:40 am
    Driving through a nice middle class neighborhood and then seeing an old run down school with an attached trailer park for excess students is just pathetic.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • flipper wrote...
    Yet another reason...
    February 4, 2013 1:55 pm
    ...not to live in Seattle. Schools falling down, roads with potholes the size of a small bus, a viaduct ready to fall down, no sun, lots of rain, an overabundance of liberals, Anarchists, no basketball team (yet), no hockey team, incredibly high property tax, incredibly high sales tax...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • fartforce1 wrote...
    Seattle has not been worth living in for more than 30 years, for families.
    February 4, 2013 5:25 pm
    If you are retired or single and gay or think you are a super hero and go around in a costume pepper spraying people it works. It works because meth heads and bums are less notice in the university district where all the sick whack jobs live with their beer can sized ear gauges and cross dimensional dressing attire. It stinks there, sanitation is a huge problem. The water system is ancient, tons of off gassing chemicals run down the sewers and its inconvenient to move around in with all the screwed up one way streets, the blotter pop chunky streets and sidewalks, the lime taste of crumbling buildings. Now it cost money just to cross the bridge and even more to park there and shop. Nope, Seattle sucks.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • fartforce1 wrote...
    Suck'northwest.com
    February 4, 2013 5:17 pm
    So one article is about how computer science education is falling behind in the US and what that we cant do anything about the 300,000 expected immigrants due to land on our shores soon because of the lack of education, Run everybody! The other article is the high cost of educating kids, run everybody in a big fat circle! The only thing the morons on this sight have to offer is , "kill the Unions," so they can cut teachers pay! Not because teachers get paid too much, but because unions are something republicans hate because it gives workers the power to stand up against tyranny and for workers rights! What a sick bunch of mixed up pigs you are!
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  • fartforce1 wrote...
    But I guess if you follow the line of thinking that "the unions are to blame" for the schools growing old, you might like what AJ has to say.
    February 4, 2013 5:31 pm
    Of course this has nothing to do with the gross receipts the lottery brings in and what the money is really spent on, now does it? You ca take your blind folds off people, this aint a bad union thing morons, its a bad government thing and the only people I see standing up to them is Dori, Ross and Brubank and the Unions!
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  • irony wrote...
    i'm tired of the state taxes
    February 4, 2013 5:26 pm
    that take a huge hit out of my budget.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CH wrote...
    did not the last elections the Seattle School District
    February 4, 2013 6:18 pm
    panhandle for money? Don't feed the panhandlers!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • murr wrote...
    I would more inclined to ????
    February 4, 2013 7:07 pm
    Stuff my money in a shreeder than have someone be dependent on it. The write off would be the same as giving it to the district. A total loss. I would be happy to give it to you if you knew how to work for it. ahhhh the shredder ????
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  • Fins2theleft wrote...
    Taxpayers are at the breaking point...
    February 4, 2013 7:30 pm
    Every year they're hit up by Federal, State, city or local governments for more, More, MORE - for schools, roads, prisons, cops, firefighters, or whatever. Most middle-class folks are hanging on to middle-class status by their fingernails. They don't have much home-equity, savings, retirement savings or job security. Enough is enough. If we keep sticking it to the middle class, then a generation now there won't be a middle-class.
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