Vote yes for MI schools! Our three elementary schools and IMS are bursting at the seams, and we have no more room for portables. To solve our capacity crisis, we must rebuild; remodeling costs almost as much as new buildings, and we would get much less. A community-based, multi-year study shows rebuilding one school at a time with bond sales spread over 5-7 years is the prudent approach to prepare for the next 50 years. The incremental tax for a $1,000,000 home is $700 per year (tax-deductible). What better investment could you make in your home, your community, and our children? Neighboring districts have done this. Now it’s our turn. Learn more: www.mischoolsyes.org.

Supporters: Attorney General Rob McKenna, Representatives Adam Smith and Jay Inslee, Senator Steve Litzow, Representatives Judy Clibborn and Marcie Maxwell, Mayor Bruce Bassett and five other MI City Council members, King County Executives Dow Constantine and Fred Jarrett, King County Council member Jane Hague, Myra Lupton, Rich Erwin, Maureen Judge, Terry Moreman, Brian Weinstein, Elliot Newman, Carrie George, Ken Glass, Leslie Ferrell, Lisa Eggers, John DeVleming, Debora Boeck, Dirk van der Burch, all five PTSAs, MIEA, Seattle King County Association of Realtors, and 700+ additional endorsers.

Schools are Mercer Island's most prized asset, but the proposed plan is wrong for us.

THE PROBLEM is "overcrowding and portables". This proposal to demolish all the elementary schools and rebuild them with larger ones is not warranted. Very large, 700+ student, elementary schools, are the wrong educational model for our children. The bond language isn’t specific. It gives the Board authority to eliminate or delete items. Traffic from a new school, on the proposed purchase of the Stevenson property, will strangle the community on Island Crest Way, south of 53rd.

What would the proposed plan cost you? For a $1,000,000 home, this bond would cost $1,280/yr. This same house would pay a total local school tax of $3600/yr.

THE SOLUTION is to build one new elementary at the north end and not prematurely demolish buildings that are functioning so well that our students score among the highest in the state! If the middle school is overcrowded, we should rebuild it in a well-planned, cost-effective fashion. Recall that 21st Century learning comes from the teachers, not buildings.

This is an irresponsible $200,000,000 commitment.

It's okay to vote "NO." Let's come back and do it right!

www.no-mi-school-tear-down.com

Maximum enrollment at each new elementary school will be 650, meeting projected needs for 20 years. A new Island Park actually improves traffic flow. The incremental tax for a $1,000,000 home is $700 (tax-deductible). One new elementary adds $450,000/year to already stretched teacher/classroom budget, escalates total construction cost by 40%, displaces tenants immediately, including Youth Theatre Northwest and leaves 3/4 of students without state-of-the-art schools for a decade. Vote YES to keep MI schools great!

Statement submitted by: Rand Ginn, Emmett Maloof and Susan Blake • hrginn@juno.com

The “Capacity “Crisis” can be handled without rebuilding all 4 school buildings.  Neighboring Districts don’t rebuild everything when they expand.  Portables were supposed to disappear in 1995.  They never went away. When 1995 bonds expire in 2015, the tax for this proposition will be $1,300 to $1,500/$Million house.  $700 is only an incremental cost.

The Bond states: “the District shall not be required to accomplish such improvements.”  There are more tax increases to come.

Statement submitted by: Michael Finn, Trevor Hart and Marty Gale • mjfinn9@gmail.com

Download the full text of resolution

60% yes vote and a minimum turnout of 3,971 (Washington Constitution, article VII, section 2(b))