Board to step back, reflect on three consecutive failures

With its third consecutive capital projects bond headed for failure, the Snoqualmie Valley School District will take time to consider how to address students’ short- and long-term needs in schools where overcrowding is becoming a progressively bigger problem.

At the school board’s regular meeting on March 20, Superintendent Joel Aune said the district will shuffle around some modular classroom buildings to alleviate the immediate issue of crowding at Mount Si High School, which is more than 200 students over capacity. The bond would have funded portable classrooms at Mount Si while building a second high school.Now, the board will step back to reflect on longer-term solutions to relieving overcrowding, and does not plan to put a fourth bond issue on the May ballot, Aune said.

“We think [the bond proposal is] a good plan; it makes sense and addresses those needs. But we’re stuck at that 58.5 percent ‘yes’ vote. It’s time for us to back up a little bit and look at this thing in some different ways,” he said.

This is the bond’s third time coming just short of the 60 percent supermajority it needs to pass.

Why did it fail?

Community members gave their opinions as to why this measure, which had a lower price tag than the previous two, failed.

One man said he was