Mukilteo Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

Students and staff are once again settling into their school day routines. This year, we saw more students walk, skip, and breeze through our school doors than in previous years.

Our enrollment numbers continue to grow, but the number of schools in our district does not. That is one of our greatest challenges in serving our growing community – suitable areas of undeveloped land, large enough for a school, just don’t exist. To house our growing number of students, we must be strategic and resourceful – two qualities I am proud to say are strongly developed in our school district.

The board will consider another capital bond for the February 2020 election. Though still in draft form, the capital bond would provide more capacity at some of our most overcrowded schools, security improvements at every school, and modernizations and replacements of aging systems.

Last school year, a committee of community members and staff from across the district met regularly to wrestle with the task of assessing the district’s most pressing facility needs to put together a potential bond package recommendation. They thoughtfully and carefully weighed which projects were most needed and where. I am grateful for their meaningful work. A big “thank you” to the Capital Bond Advisory Committee members: Dom Amor, Cory Armstrong-Hoss, Lori Bumstead, Matt Chriscaden, Ken Clay, Keashia Garner, Mike Gilson, Eric Hong, Brian Kirk, Kendrah Larson, Kevin Laverty, Darrilyn Martin, Lisa Matson, Andrew Vuong and Dana Wiebe.

The Capital Bond Advisory Committee gave their recommendations to me and I made a recommendation to the school board based on their work. The school board most recently heard a presentation about the recommendation during its Sept. 23 board meeting. If you’re interested, the presentation is available on the school board pages on the district website. They will finalize a capital bond package Oct. 28 and vote on the resolution during their Nov. 12 regular meeting.

We’ll share the draft bond package and other bond-related information with community members in October. I hope you can join us at one of these interactive meetings:

1: Oct. 15, Mariner High School commons, 6-7:30 p.m.

2: Oct. 17, Harbour Pointe Middle School commons, 6-7:30 p.m.

You’ll have an opportunity to hear an overview of the capital bond proposal, ask questions of staff as you visit specific project stations around the room and provide feedback. You can also learn more about the district’s bond planning, projects and timeline on the district website at http://www.mukilteoschools.org. We’ll add more information to the website once the board votes on the proposal in early November, so check back often.

Another opportunity for community to gather and connect with us this fall is to celebrate Mariner High School’s 50th anniversary! Mariner is throwing a celebration and you’re invited. On Friday, Oct. 11, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Mariner Commons, you can hear from alumni and past staff, take a walk down memory lane in the photo gallery and feel Mariner’s still-strong school spirit with Mariner band and cheerleaders. If you want to keep the school spirit going, I invite you to stay for the homecoming football game at 7 p.m. at Goddard Stadium. It will be a fun night filled with memories, shared with our community.