Supporting the LWSD bond | Letters

• I’m a Lake Washington School District (LWSD) parent, and I am writing to encourage voters to vote “yes” to support the school district bond on April 26.

• I’m a Lake Washington School District (LWSD) parent, and I am writing to encourage voters to vote “yes” to support the school district bond on April 26.

Our district is one of the fastest growing in the state and that growth is projected to continue. We have added 3,000 students to the district in the last five years alone. As a result, our schools are desperately overcrowded. Our students are receiving instruction in places not meant to be classrooms. We are also using a lot of portables. In fact, by next school year there will be 168 portables across the district. That’s equal to the classroom space in seven elementary schools.

Through this bond, we’ll be able to reduce overcrowding and add more classroom space to give our students the best learning environment possible. This bond WILL NOT RAISE THE TAX RATE. It has been carefully planned so that it prioritizes our schools’ most urgent needs while keeping taxpayer costs low.

If you want to learn more, visit www.lwsd.org.

Sarah Frankum

Redmond

 

• As the mom of a kindergartner, a toddler and a soon-to-be newborn in the Lake Washington School District (LWSD), I’m continually thinking about the type of public education my children will receive. My husband and I bought a home in Redmond a year and a half ago because of the area’s reputation for good schools and manageable classroom sizes, but we are concerned about projected overcrowding and how it will impact student learning in the upcoming years.

When we moved here from Seattle, we were delighted to find out that our daughter’s kindergarten classroom size would be 21-22 students compared to kindergarten classroom sizes of 25-plus in Seattle. Unfortunately, maintaining this requires extensive use of portables or delivering instruction in places not meant to be classrooms. For example, our middle school will have 13 portables next year, close to a third of its capacity. While portables may provide temporary housing for classrooms, they don’t increase supply of gyms, music rooms, libraries, cafeterias, access roads, parking or bathrooms. With projected growth of more than 2,000 students in the next five years, we just don’t know where all the kids will go, and we hope the same manageable sizes continue for all our children in the LWSD.

That’s why we are supporting the LWSD April 26 school bond measure, which will improve students’ educational opportunities without raising our tax rate.

I’ve researched the bond proposal, and learned that it takes advantage of good fiscal planning and timing. By paying off other district bonds and levies, the school district can fund this bond proposal without raising our tax rate. And bond approval ensures that the district is eligible for state matching funds to make sure our local investment goes even further.

You can learn more about the proposal by visiting the school district website at www.lwsd.org.

I hope LWSD voters will join us in voting “yes” for schools April 26.

Erin Snodgrass

Redmond