After an hour-long Seattle School Board work session this evening, the district’s draft list for next year’s BEX V capital levy still includes two major West Seattle projects: a $53 million rebuild for Alki Elementary and $22 million addition for West Seattle Elementary. Smaller projects are also proposed for seven West Seattle campuses. Here (as first published in our preview last night) is the agenda with slide deck/documents:

(If that embedded version doesn’t work for you, go here.)

They began with the explanation of, and discussion about, weighting the proposed projects by equity. This generated quite a deal of discussion, including some wondering about demographic change in the immediate future, and whether the projections made now would hold true over the course of the six-year levy as affordability challenges continue to send lower-income residents out of the city. Another topic of discussion: The lack of alternate/interim sites elsewhere in the city is starting to affect options for what can be built where/when, district manager Richard Best said. “I’m concerned that we may not be thinking creatively and out of the box,” observed board president Leslie Harris (who represents West Seattle/South Park on the board). Some projects, said Best, would be “built in place” (with students not having to leave) – such as the proposed West Seattle Elementary addition. (Though it wasn’t a topic of discussion at this meeting, it’s been noted that Alki Elementary would move to the old Schmitz Park Elementary site during a rebuild.)

Harris asked for staffers to clearly point out any major changes from the previous meeting; the biggest, said Best, is in the “building systems and repairs” list, where they’ve added more “smaller” projects so they could “touch more schools.” This list had involved projects at 27 schools at the September 26th work session, said best, and now it’s about double that, including these West Seattle projects:

Boren STEM – K-8 HVAC – $4,034,016
Gatewood – Playgrounds – $175,000
Gatewood – Exterior Door – $150,000
Sanislo – Site Improvements – $ 383,297
Sanislo – Ceiling Fan $300,000
West Seattle – Exterior Door $ 142,977
West Seattle HS – Roof $ 8,979,237

Also:
Schmitz Park – Seismic – $472,910

Athletic Field/Lighting
Madison MS – $2,600,000

Board members agreed that the overall levy list – totaling $1.4 billion – looked “solid.” But as the hourlong meeting concluded, they also stressed that “community input is still welcome,” as board member Eden Mack put it. Board contact info is at lower right on this page. And watch for word of a public hearing on the levy in late October; BEX V, and the district’s next three-year Operations Levy, will go to voters next February.