FOLLOWUP: More about the $50 million Chief Sealth IHS addition proposed as part of Seattle Public Schools’ $1.8 billion BEX VI levy

When we reported Monday night on Seattle Public Schools‘ proposed $1.8 billion, six-year capital-levy renewal/expansion – BEX VI (aka the sixth “Building Excellence” levy) – we noted the biggest West Seattle project on its list is a $50 million addition for Career Technical Education at Chief Sealth International High School. We also noted that the levy document linked to the agenda for next week’s School Board meeting (4:15 pm October 9) has no other details about the proposed project, and that the process of developing the levy list did not involve community consultation the way BEX V did. So we had to ask SPS’s media team to dig up details on the proposal, which they’ve done over the past few days. According to district spokesperson Tina Riss Christiansen:

An addition to Chief Sealth International High School is proposed to meet the needs of the Career and Technical Education Program, eliminate the eight portables along the west property edge, and enhance energy conservation, addressing both State of Washington Clean Energy and City of Seattle’s Building Emissions requirements.

The classroom addition is planned to be added at the northern portion of the existing school and will include relocating the existing Career and Technical Education construction trades classroom from the basement and the food service classroom from the interior of the building. Both classrooms are undersized for the student populations they serve and poorly located for routinely transporting the materials and supplies required to meet the educational program needs.

In addition, SPS plans to construct eight general education classrooms.

The project is contingent on School Board approval of the levy projects and voter approval of the levy. Construction is planned to occur with students remaining on-site.

The $50M is divided 2/3 construction and 1/3 A/E fees, permit costs, construction contingency, furnishings, and Washington State Sales Tax.

No renderings yet, the district says, because design work won’t start until and unless the levy – one of two that the district plans to send to voters in February – is approved.

We are in the process of scheduling community information meetings on both levies after the Oct. 9, 2024, Board Meeting and Study Session.

Adding proposed project information to the website is also in progress.

19 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: More about the $50 million Chief Sealth IHS addition proposed as part of Seattle Public Schools' $1.8 billion BEX VI levy"

  • I love educated citizens October 4, 2024 (5:31 am)

    Keep in mind we are facing a crisis in public education right now. Public schools desperately under funded, teachers massively under paid, schools under lots of pressure, school districts poorly managed and now massively politicized. Right wing wackos are even hijacking school boards across America to “make their point” instead of wanting to see teachers actually and effectively teaching our future citizens science, math, and history. We are literally at a point where our young people need a solid education more than ever. Ignorance In and lies only fall to knowledge. No, in this comment I won’t pretend to know the answers, but dammit, people, pray our leaders funding and running schools take education seriously, more than ever. 

  • Mellow Kitty October 4, 2024 (8:43 am)

    Look. I get it. Schools need funding. Police need funding. Fire departments need funding. At some point we have to ask who is doing the budget. Every time the state gets a chance, it raises taxes or asks us to volunteer to pay more taxes via levies. Where is all of this tax money going? The liquor, tobacco & marijuana taxes were supposed to fund these things. The soda tax is supposed to support public health funding. The gas tax is supposed to fund the DOT. Property taxes are supposed to fund schools, etc. Where are the receipts? How about we make Amazon pay some taxes or start taxing religion. Eliminate corporate welfare and tax breaks. No more of the state and local legislatures voting themselves a pay raise. No more stadiums or pet projects. No more subsidizing professional sports teams and corporations. The stadiums are considered public parks, so we tax payers are funding the upkeep. Eliminate empty office buildings being used as tax shelters. Do not give religion-based schools a single penny of public tax money. There’s so much useless crap our taxes pay for. Enough is enough. Seriously, if we eliminate all state and federal tax waste, we’ll have a balanced budget within a a year or two. 

  • Wseattleit October 4, 2024 (9:23 am)

    It is too bad the County, Sound Transit, and City cannot put a holistic and effective overall budget together.  All of this levy here, levy there tends to detract from looking at overall money available and book at overall need.  Yes, there are different mechanisms to provide funding, but at the end of the day there is only one source – us. 

  • Rob October 4, 2024 (9:38 am)

    I work in construction. Have for decades. Just look up what a $50M project gets you in the private sector and you’ll start to see the waste of “government” projects. 

    • Bbron October 4, 2024 (11:17 am)

      33 million is for construction

      • Rob October 4, 2024 (12:35 pm)

        “33 million is for construction.” False the $50M includes = The $50M is divided 2/3 construction and 1/3 A/E fees, permit costs, construction contingency, furnishings, and Washington State Sales Tax.Which is what the private sector would roll up into the cost of the project. It’s Apples to Apples. It’s a $50M project. I’m the Controller for a very large company in construction. My only question is why is the state charging sales tax. 

    • Dan October 4, 2024 (1:24 pm)

      Could you please elaborate? What are the things they are doing wrong?

  • Curious George October 4, 2024 (10:45 am)

    What I am Curious about is I see SPS closing schools yet wants money💰to build / improve an existing school.  This does not seem to me to be a financial correct move…please explain.

    • WSB October 4, 2024 (11:27 am)

      BEX levies are put on the ballot to raise money for a variety of capital projects – see the document link. This story is only a followup on the largest proposed project in West Seattle, as there was almost zero info in the document.

  • proudpugetridger October 4, 2024 (11:52 am)

    We have drifted far away from blue collar career preparation in our public school system for decades.  The impacts of that (eliminating select career training) includes:  overwhelming student load debt, massive shortage of skilled labor in the workforce, imbalanced ratio of highly educated people to the number of careers they qualify for, and hoards of young people who are never exposed to the opportunities that working class jobs offer.  Far, far too many young adults spend their entire career at entry-level jobs, primarily because they have never been exposed to any alternatives other than “get a college degree”.   So yes, bring back service, manufacturing, and trade training, it is a crucial step to economic recovery.  

  • uninspired October 4, 2024 (1:30 pm)

    Am I the only one thinking this is a very uninspiring list of projects for 1.8 Billion with a B? The expiring 1.4B levy, BEX V, replaced 7 schools  and made significant additions/modernizations to 3 others. Here is the list: https://www.seattleschools.org/about/levy/capital-levies/bex-v/The new levy only includes 1 replacement and 4 additions/modernizations. It seems like a lot the budget is for what one might consider basic maintenance and repairs. Plus technology, which is over 400M of the total, including over $94 million for software. 

    • Melissa Westbrook October 4, 2024 (8:47 pm)

      Uninspired, I join you in this thought. Not one middle school when so many are lacking? Also to note, several years back, the district shifted most of the Technology department funding from the General Fund to BEX. That’s what so much of the levy fund is slated for Technology.Given his poorly the district is going, not sure if they should get nearly $2B for these two levies.

  • PDiddy October 5, 2024 (8:41 am)

    now up to 1.8B. Last billion levy doubled my property taxes and I am certain this will be worse and probably unaffordable for a lot of people especially fixed income. This is ludicrous. I dont think we need a CTE addition at a high school. Can they not do that at the SS College which has a lot of overlap?

    • Bbron October 5, 2024 (10:52 am)

      the levies did not increase your property taxes. Levy rates have been dropping over the last 8 years, and significantly for seniors. your property taxes have gone up because of the housing market prices. stop blaming levies for problems outside of it.

      • Melissa Westbrook October 21, 2024 (10:01 am)

        That may be true but it is also true that the levies are a very large part of your property tax each year.

  • Melissa Westbrook October 19, 2024 (11:24 am)

    Hoo boy, I went through the entire list. Here’s the thoughts I had in my blog post.  I would say , just say no to BEX VI. Fewer but more expensive projects, vague categories of spending and the kicker – buying land to build a new elementary school (location unknown). Building a new school while closing others. https://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2024/10/bex-vi-honestly-just-say-no.html

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