April 13, 2026

The Vashon Island School District Bond Planning Task Force, a committee made up of district staff and Vashon Island residents convened for its second meeting to continue discussion about school facility priorities and the potential development of a future bond proposal for Vashon voters.

State of the Schools

The meeting began with the group reflecting on the educational assessment from the work done on the 10-year facilities master plan, with a scale of: 1 - works well, needs minimal improvement; 2 - needs improvements to meet standards; and 3 - poor, large scale improvements needed. 

This included an asset report, which rated over 400 maintainable assets VISD possesses, ranging from everything to roofing to exhaust systems. The ratings were based on observed condition, cost, impact to students, remaining life, and then provided composite scores based on importance.

Going in chronological order of when the building was first built, the team presented the scores, providing data points for the overall conditions of buildings as they relate to their use by the District. Understandably, older buildings, such as the high school gym and McMurray Middle School scored poorly compared to the newer buildings, such as Chautauqua Elementary and the main Vashon High building.

The task force then broke into small groups to discuss what they noticed about the building conditions that surprised them and what they wanted to learn more about.

Talking Money

Ryan Swanson and Trevor Carlson of Piper Sandler were invited to the meeting to present about the financials of bonds and the differences between bonds and levies. They explained how districts can collect funds and explained historical tax rates on Vashon, providing comparisons to other districts with similar assessed values.

They then presented hypothetical bond scenarios to provide an idea of how much money various tax rates would generate in bond monies.

The meeting concluded with a quick update on project costs. It was highlighted that in 2020, the construction cost index trend in Seattle rose 26.06 percent as the global pandemic disrupted the global supply chain, and prices have never recovered. As an example, when Vashon High School was completed in 2017, its construction costs equated to approximately $33.4 million, or $411 per square foot. If the building was to be built today, it would theoretically cost $67.3 million, with a total cost per square foot of $829.