Tsunami safety bond in North Beach School District failing in early results
Feb 9, 2022, 2:01 PM | Updated: Feb 10, 2022, 8:29 am
Pacific Beach Elementary School. (Photo courtesy of North Beach School District/Facebook)
(Photo courtesy of North Beach School District/Facebook)
The first round of special election results have been posted across Washington.
The state’s February special election was primarily focused on school levy bonds. In King County, about 20% of all eligible ballots have been tallied, and most bond levies — including the two in Seattle and Bellevue — are passing by significant margins.
But along the coast, the $110 million bond to build tsunami protection at schools in Ocean Shores is failing in early returns. Included in the bond would be the construction of improvements and expansions at each school in the North Beach School District.
Proposition 1 would have enhanced the safety at Ocean Shores Elementary, Pacific Beach Elementary School, and North Beach Middle/High School, and would have created additional classroom space. Most notably, it would have allowed for “a safe haven” to be built at each school to “nearly eliminate the threat from a tsunami for our students, staff and surrounding community members,” the district explains.
Tsunami ‘towers’ proposed in North Beach School District bond
Part of these improvements would include a new school beyond the reach of the a tsunami to replace the existing Pacific Beach Elementary School.
North Beach School District Superintendent Andrew Kelly told KIRO Newsradio on Wednesday that they will still try to find a cheaper way to rebuild the school.
“We’re sending kids to the school that has been rated the least safe, seismically, in the state of Washington. We have to try to address that school,” Kelly said. “We’ll come back with a scaled down version, but the part that will get cut is the tsunami refuges at the middle school, high school, and the other elementary school.”
Kelly says all of the schools in the district lie in the tsunami hazard zone, putting kids at risk.
Proposition 2 for the North Beach School District is also failing in early results, though with a closer margin — 50.54% ‘no’ votes to 49.46% ‘yes’ votes.
KIRO Newsradio’s Nicole Jennings contributed to this report.
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