Issaquah schools bond measure faces pushback over new high school proposal
Voters within Issaquah School District’s (ISD) boundaries will be voting on Nov. 5 on whether or not to approve a $642 million bond measure for school modernization and construction. As with all bond measures, a 60% threshold is required for approval.
While many voters do support the effort to modernize existing school buildings with safety upgrades and repairs, a fierce debate has erupted, especially in Sammamish, over the $182 million earmarked for a new high school to be constructed by 2027. Some residents, local officials, and advocacy groups question the need for new school construction, pointing to uncertain enrollment trends and costs as negative factors.
ISD owns land at the former site of Providence Heights College, located at the south end of 228th Ave SE. If the district does build a school at the site, it would be the fourth high school on 228th Ave SE — in addition to Eastlake, Skyline, and Eastside Catholic — with additional school traffic utilizing this major arterial roadway on the Sammamish Plateau.
Sammamish Councilmember Amy Lam has been one of the most vocal critics of the bond measure, focusing a lot of her opposition on the cost of building a new high school.
“I have mostly no problem with the rest of the bond as I believe that restoring and maintaining most of these things are important,” Lam said, referring to the school modernization components. “However, ISD is not being transparent as it is hard to see anywhere on their site of the extra $270 million interest for taxpayers to pay over time, on top of the $642 million.”
She disagrees with the district’s capacity calculations and exclusion of portables as permanent capacity, arguing that this inflates the perception of overcrowding in high schools.
“I am not disputing that there are people that will say the schools are overcrowded,” Lam said. “But the numbers don’t add up. If portables are part of every school already, they should be considered permanent capacity, not ignored.”
Dave Osmer, who leads CCARE, a group that is actively campaigning against the bond, questions whether the district can sustain a new high school financially, especially if future enrollment comes in below their projections.
“School funding from the state relies on headcount and if there is not enough abundance of students, levies for operational costs will be more expensive,” Osmer said. “This isn’t just about cost, it’s about sustainability and prioritizing needs.”
In response, ISD Superintendent Heather Tow-Yick framed the new high school as a necessary project to address ongoing overcrowding at ISD schools. She believes the opposition’s focus on overall enrollment numbers misrepresents the needs at the high school level.
“Our enrollment at the high school level — both projected and actual — tells a different story from the enrollment in general across the district,” Tow-Yick said. “In 2015, we needed a new high school to relieve overcrowding and increase safety at Issaquah and Skyline high schools, when we were in the planning process for the 2016 bond. That need still exists and enrollment projections don’t show any prediction of relief.”
The new high school would relieve pressure on Skyline and Issaquah high schools by redistributing students and staff and increasing headcount.
“We anticipate about 600 to 700 students will be moved from each of Skyline High School and Issaquah High School attendance areas to the new high school,” Tow-Yick said. “A proportionate number of teachers and staff members also would move to the new high school.”
Lam argues that it would be more cost-effective for ISD to expand current high schools instead of building a new one. She would rather see expansions similar to the 20,000-square-foot addition that ISD is planning for Liberty High School, which is also part of the bond measure and costs $40 million.
“They should have just done a feasibility study, figure out which high school can be expanded. That would be fiscally responsible,” Lam said.
Correction: The original version of this article misquoted Superintendent Heather Tow-Yick by mistakenly shortening what she said. We have corrected the article by including her full quote.
