By Courtney Oldwyn
Journal Reporter
Island voters passed the Capitol Projects and Technology Levy for San Juan School District, Feb. 9 with 73.77 percent of the vote, as of deadline.
“We [the San Juan Island School Board] are thrilled and very grateful to the community for supporting this levy, especially considering it was a tax increase,” said June Arnold, San Juan Island School District Board Chairwoman. “We’re super excited they [the voters] saw a value in technology and instruction for our teachers and the projects we put on the list that are truly needed maintenance and repairs.”
The passing of the levy will fund various building improvements and projects as well as technological advances such as a new science, technology, engineering and mathematics building at the Friday Harbor Elementary School and further training for staff and teachers.
“It takes time to realize those levy dollars but we plan to get our teachers up to date on technology,” said Arnold.
Other projects earmarked to be funded by this year’s levy include a remodel of Turnbull Gym’s locker rooms, which have not been updated since the gym was opened in the 1980s. Structural problems at the Friday Harbor Middle School are also on the repair list along with modernizing both school’s libraries and kitchens.
“The financing from this new levy won’t flow into us until 2017 but we plan to talk to local banks about a line of credit to start on the middle school to deal with some of the water issues that have become really noticeable in this rainy time of year,” said Arnold.
The planning stages for repairing rotted trim, exterior doors, flooring, windows and the south and east walls of the middle school that are currently being damaged by water leaks will start as soon as possible. Construction will hopefully be underway by spring of next year. The line of credit will allow planning and construction to begin prior to the start of the levy tax in 2017 and is needed to ensure no further damage to the school.
The school board will begin the planning stages of remodeling the Turnbull gym locker rooms this spring with construction to hopefully start in the spring of 2017.
“We also have a technology replacement schedule, it’s laid out on our website, [www.sjlevy.org] to start replacing the oldest computers first, to add tech staffing and, as the new levy money comes in, to be able to train our teachers,” said Arnold.
The addition of a STEM building at the elementary school, along with other projects will follow.
“We’re just so thrilled, and it passed with such a high percentage it just shows how our community is so incredibly supportive of our schools,” said Arnold.
