Spokane parks, schools to ask voters to approve ambitious $440 million plan

All-weather fields and indoor courts that can attract sports tournaments and keep Spokane’s children and young adults active year-round. A remodeled indoor pool that could kick-start swim teams at each high school. Two rebuilt elementary schools. Partnerships with nonprofits that could enhance facilities and allow more public access.

Spokane Public Schools and the city parks department are collaborating in an ambitious effort to touch every corner of the city in hundreds of small ways and a handful of big ones – and they’re hopeful the partnership will convince taxpayers they’ll get more juice with less squeeze.

The projects could have as significant effect on the trajectory of Spokane as did Expo ’ 74, school Superintendent Adam Swinyard said in a Wednesday interview. Every second-grader would learn to swim, neighborhoods without parks would finally get one or get a much-needed face-lift to the one they have, and more.

The two organizations, flanked by a bipartisan group of prominent supporters, formally announced a plan Thursday that has been in the works for months: placing a parks levy and school bond on the same ballot, which would pay for new programs, facilities, parks and schools.

There would be at least a few perks for every neighborhood, with special attention on the ones that have historically seen little, and the two agencies say they can offer significantly more for less money than if city parks and the school district didn’t work together.

“Dr. Swinyard shared his vision of getting students off screens and outside participating in programmed activities. Parks is a city leader in providing excellent programming for all ages,” Parks Board President Bob Anderson said at Thursday’s announcement. “In the past, schools didn’t have the resources to provide the staffing, and parks didn’t have the facilities to program requested after-school activities. This partnership will provide the critical resources to make our community better, not only for students, but for us all.”

Officials expect both measures to appear on the November ballot, though the parks levy will need to be formally approved by the Spokane City Council and the school bond will need to be approved by the school board, actions anticipated by April at the latest.

The parks levy would raise $240 million in property taxes over the next 20 years from city taxpayers, at a rate of 27 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. That means the owner of a $400,000 home in Spokane would pay an additional $108 per year.

The school district will ask voters living within the district to grant the agency authority to issue $200 million in bonds that would need to be paid off over 20 years.

Unlike levies, which are collected directly from property taxpayers at a steady clip over the entire life of the levy, bonds are sold to investors at the front end, usually in a few rounds, and paid back by the school district over at most 20 years with interest using property taxes. This allows the money to be quickly raised and used for expensive construction projects. While this financing model can mean that the amount taxpayers will spend to pay the debt for a particular bond fluctuates greatly over time, an individual’s taxes will be generally more stable overall.

Taxpayers can expect to pay roughly 6 to 31 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to pay off the bond, depending on the year, with an average payment of 23 cents per $1,000, according to Cindy Coleman, chief finance and business services officer for Spokane Public Schools.

Complicating matters, taxpayers shouldn’t expect to see their tax bills increase by that much in 2026 if the bond passes, as past debt is continually paid off. In fact, in the first year, a person’s tax bill would go up 2 cents per $1,000, or $8 for a $400,000 home.

The district has generally sought a bond every six years since 2003, issuing new ones with voter approval for the next round of projects as it pays down the principal from the prior bonds.

Taxpayers continue to pay down debt from bonds approved in 2009 and 2018, and today a homeowner inside the school district pays about $1.34 per $1,000 in total on school bond debt. If the new bond is approved by voters, the total bond payment for a homeowner would only go up to $1.36 per $1,000 in 2026, because other debt is being paid off at the same time.

This would increase to $1.50 in 2027, where it is projected to hold steady for at least four years.

Below is a sampling of the projects the two entities seek to fund under these two ballot items.

‘A community center that has a school inside of it’

This year’s bond encompasses all the projects intended on the failed February 2024 bond and then some. All schools will see annual upgrades, from a fresh coat of paint to – in two cases – completely new schools . Swinyard said some intended projects from the February 2024 proposal had to be dialed back, but others were vastly expanded.

It’s difficult for school and park officials to point to a crown jewel in the expansive list of projects they hope to fund through these tax measures, though the most expensive school projects are the replacement of two elementary schools and the remodeling of North Central High School, which were on the list in last year’s failed tax plan.

Adams and Madison elementary schools are slated to be razed and replaced with “community centers that have a variety of functions” beyond schooling, Swinyard said.

Madison Elementary, which borders Franklin Park in North Spokane, would be replaced with a building housing the school, as well as after-school programs for Boys and Girls Club and a five-sport court indoor “field house.” One court would be used for school gym during the day, and the rest would be publicly accessible and used for Parks and Recreation programs like senior pickleball. These courts would be paid for by the Pacific Northwest Qualifier volleyball tournament in exchange for free use during their competitions, with the Spokane Hoopfest Association chipping in another $1 million. Ball fields in the adjacent Franklin Park would get practice lights for nighttime play.

Adams Elementary, a brick South Hill schoolhouse built in 1909 that isn’t compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, would see a similar overhaul in the partnership with Boys and Girls Club, though it wouldn’t get a Madison-style fieldhouse. Adams is the first priority among the projects for the district.

During reconstructions on each of these buildings, which district spokesman Ryan Lancaster estimates would take around a year, kids would temporarily move to other schools. Adams students would learn in the old Jefferson Elementary School, while Madison students would disperse at nearby schools.

North Central High School, the last of the district’s five high schools to be fully renovated, would see modernizations in its oldest sections. They’d also add a turf football field, baseball and softball fields, all with lights. Sporting areas could be used by school kids and parks programming.

Swinyard expects each of these three projects would cost in the $30 to $40 million range.

Chase and Garry middle schools would each see updates that wouldn’t require students to learn elsewhere during construction.

Parks and schools collectively own a 20-acre parcel in Latah Valley. This bond and levy would finance the plans for a future school with an adjacent new park, each to be constructed through future tax asks, likely in 2031.

The school district plans to use a state-owned building on the Spokane Community College campus for a new vocational skill-focused high school. Students attending this new school could graduate both with their diploma and a two-year technical degree in electrical engineering, fire science or automotive technology, for example.

Kids too young for school could also see a payout in this package – the district plans to launch a comprehensive online preschool directory with public and private options for families to find openings for their little ones.

Though not paid for through ballot initiatives, the district intends to sell or lease six of its properties and use the revenue as another funding mechanism for projects. They’ll sell or lease properties of the old Jefferson Elementary School, The Community School, the downtown district office, an adjacent parking lot, a warehouse on Hamilton Street and operations center on Carnahan Street, Swinyard said. The district office and The Community School will move to a U-district building purchased for $12.2 million in December.

If you build it …

Adjacent to the former site of the Joe Albi Stadium is the city-owned Dwight Merkel Sports Complex. Land from each would be merged under this proposal, adding eight all-weather fields to the Merkel complex, two paid for by local soccer clubs. Further updates include lighting for nighttime use, a concessions building and pump track for cyclists.

Though commonplace in schools in Western Washington, Spokane Public Schools doesn’t offer swimming as a school sport. That could change, with the district eyeing a “mothballed” indoor pool owned by Spokane Community College. In exchange for the school district spending an estimated $1 million to $3 million to renovate the space, the college plans to hand over control of the building for no cost.

After updates, the 25-yard pool could be a space where high school teams practice, people with disabilities get swim therapy and every Spokane Public Schools second-grader learns how to swim, with priority for those living north of the river. When schools aren’t using the space, the public could reserve it.

Though the Ferris High School building itself wouldn’t see any substantial remodeling, nearby campus space would become a varied sports complex, with the addition of three turf fields and baseball infield, plus lights. Spokane Youth Sports Association would pitch in on building costs and share use of the space.

Shadle Park High School drew the attention of the United States Tennis Association Pacific Northwest section, which plans to fund the costs to build new indoor courts on the school’s campus in an effort to revitalize the sport. The association plans to finance a 10-court indoor tennis facility. School tennis teams would get priority, followed by city programs.

To make easier the scheduling and use of the more than 230 projects the two separate ballot items would fund, the entities plan to launch a website, “facilitron,” for residents to book spaces and peruse programs from the schools and parks.

Each high schools’ grass sports field would be accessible in all weather and all seasons with the addition of turf and bright lights.

Parks, parks and more parks

If voters agree to give Spokane parks another $225 million over the next 20 years – or roughly $11.5 million per year – it would be the first systemwide investment in neighborhood parks since 1999, according to the Park Board.

“All 29 neighborhoods get a project in this; no one is left out,” Mayor Lisa Brown said at Thursday’s announcement. “All our parks will see improvements – that’s all 90 parks.”

She added that she intends to visit each of them this year.

Spokane’s park officials have promised three new neighborhood parks, significantly increasing the areas of the city where it is possible to walk from any particular home to the nearest public park within 10 minutes.

Two of these parks would be located in some of the northernmost reaches of the city, including in North Indian Trail to the northwest and Shiloh Hills to the northeast.

The third site announced by the city Thursday would be in the Latah/Hangman Neighborhood on what is undeveloped land immediately across the highway from the Qualchan Golf Course, though it’s not coming in the next few years. Local leaders hope to build a park on the north side and an elementary on the south side of this property, though the school district will not immediately be able to afford to build the school, so the agencies would pause on developing either until both can be built simultaneously, likely in the 2030s.

Improvements to park properties would be nearly ubiquitous under the proposal. Park officials promise more daily maintenance, increasing the number of commissioned park rangers from four to as many as 12, renovations or replacements to every one of the city’s 85 park bathrooms, improvements to five local trailheads, and the development of six outdoor learning centers.

Parks officials have said every park in the city would receive some attention with the levy funding but would target three “deteriorating” parks for full overhauls and renovations. This includes Grant Park, located next to Grant Elementary in the East Central Neighborhood, Harmon Field and Skate Park, located immediately west of the North Spokane Corridor in the Hillyard Neighborhood, and Minnehaha Park in the northeastern corner of the Minnehaha Neighborhood.

Upgrading Minnehaha, which opens to an expansive trail system on Beacon Hill, has been of particular interest to Councilman Michael Cathcart, who has argued the area needs a major park that can act as a community hub and pushed for the parks levy to move forward last year as originally scheduled.

“If anyone has spent any time in the parks in northeast Spokane, it is embarrassing,” Cathcart said last April shortly before the levy was delayed for a second time, an action he opposed at the time.

At Thursday’s announcement of the partnership, Cathcart was said he was “incredibly excited” to see the park featured.

Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture

Today, most of the Museum of Arts and Culture’s campus in Browne’s Addition isn’t dedicated to exhibits and displays – it’s dedicated to storage for the many artifacts in its collection. What is open to the public tends to be filled by traveling exhibits, like the current “Samurai, Sunrise, Sunset” exhibit on display until May 4 and not the MAC’s own extensive archives.

“All of our local history is in storage at their current site,” Swinyard said in a recent interview. “All of our Indigenous culture, pioneer culture, urbanization culture – all those artifacts are not available to the community because they don’t have any exhibit space.”

One project proposed by the Spokane School District and the city’s parks department is an offsite storage facility with support and funding from the MAC that the three organizations could share, freeing up approximately 25,000 square feet of the museum’s storage space for public displays. The MAC would support design and construction costs through state grants over the next two years, Swinyard said.

Not without gamble

Park and school officials have come to the public hand-in-hand, pitching voters on a partnership that could touch every corner of the city in myriad small and some significant ways.

They argue that the partnership means taxpayers get more for less money than if the two went it alone, which may convince voters to be more favorable toward the Spokane school district’s bond than last year.

Advocates point to the successful dual campaigns in 2018 between the $495 million school bond and the $77 million library levy as proof that such a partnership could be successful.

But voters will still be confronted with two separate items on their ballots, begging the question: what happens if one fails?

The ask from parks, being a levy, only needs the approval of a majority of voters to pass. The school district’s bond, however, requires 60% under state law. When the district asked voters to approve a bond last February, it failed with around 56% of the vote.

The plans for Spokane’s schools and parks have become so deeply entwined that it is difficult to tease out exactly what either entity would accomplish and on what timetable if voters approve only one of the two ballot measures.

If only the parks levy were approved, some of the proposed projects would proceed anyway. For example, the two entities have proposed building a new park and a new elementary school on the same parcel of land in the Latah Valley.

If both the parks levy and the school bond were approved, the school district still would not have enough funding from the bond to build the school, so in the near term., the agencies would pay to plan both projects. If the school district’s next bond in approximately six years were approved, both the park and school would be built at that time, which officials from both agencies believe would keep costs down on both projects.

But there is enough money in this year’s parks levy for the Latah Valley park to be built, according to parks and recreation spokeswoman Fianna Dickson. If the school bond failed, construction of that park would proceed anyway, and in that case without consideration to the school’s next funding cycle.

If that example seems complicated, it may be one of the simpler ones to break apart if the partnership can’t proceed.

The school district can still refer to the plan it proposed for the money it would have received from the failed 2024 bond, and the city parks department can turn to the original plans it created when the agency believed it was going it alone. Either agency can still march forward if the other fails, but not without difficulty.

“There’s certain elements that would still happen, but when you look at those 33 featured projects, those will not happen if one of these fails,” Garrett Jones, city parks director, said in a recent interview. “If the school district can build (the Merkel Sports Complex expansion) but the parks levy fails, then we can’t operate it, and that project can’t pencil out.”

Another potential complication for both requests: the possibility of a new jail bond.

In 2023, Spokane County voters resoundingly rejected a 30-year, $1.7 billion bond that would have paid for, among other things, two new jails.

While no concrete plan has formed, officials expect the county will likely go back to voters.

The city parks levy has been delayed three times, twice out of concern that it would land on the same ballot as a major tax ask and frustrate a financially strained electorate. The third time, in November, it was the Spokane parks board that proposed the delay, arguing that a partnership with the schools was worth the wait.

Cathcart, however, raised concerns at the time that this last delay could land both the parks levy, for which he has been a major advocate, and the school bond on a ballot where it could be dwarfed by a jail measure.

Asked Wednesday how the two agencies would respond if this happened, Swinyard suggested a new jail proposal would need more time to bake before it was put to voters, but while “that would not be our ideal ballot scenario, we would move forward.”

Schools and parks launched a website with a comprehensive list of projects and an interactive map, viewable at togetherspokane.org.

Editor’s Note: This story has been changed to specify the Pacific Northwest section of the United States Tennis Association is funding the construction of the Shadle Park tennis courts. An earlier version of this story misstated the number of yards of the community college pool.