SPOKANE, Wash. — A small school district in North Spokane, with one of the state’s oldest continually running school houses, is seeking a multi-million dollar bond in the upcoming election.
Orchard Prairie School District was founded in 1894 and is hoping to pass a 30-year $6.2 million bond to replace outdated school facilities.
Currently, the district has two buildings: the original school house, which houses kindergarten through second grade, and a separate, larger building for third through seventh grade, which was built in the 1970s.
Although there are only 78 students enrolled in the district, there is still not enough space for all staff and students between the two buildings.
The district said it would use the bond to replace the larger building with an entirely new school.
“We don’t have offices. Our nurses station is a little nook downstairs that doesn’t have a door. So, the new building would just be classrooms, cafeteria, multipurpose space, just the bare bones of exactly what our students need and nothing more,” said Katelyn Schuler, Orchard Prairie School Board President.
If approved, the bond would cost taxpayers in the district roughly $221 per $100,000 of assessed property value, meaning if you have a home valued at $400,000 you’d be paying approximately $884 a year in taxes for this bond.
The district said the new building would increase security by providing a single access point to the school and would be built with potential natural disasters in mind.
“We are no longer compliant with the earthquake capabilities of a safe school. If an earthquake occurs, we have life safety issues with access,” said school board member Rod Sprague.
If the bond passes, Orchard Prairie still plans to keep the original school house building.
“Nothing is going to happen to that. We’re working on it being put on the historic registry right now,” said Schuler.
COPYRIGHT 2024 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
