Spokane Public Schools to move ahead with property consolidation to save $5 million, maybe more if $200 million bond passes

The Spokane Public Schools board on Wednesday unanimously approved the first phase of the school district’s property consolidation plan that’s connected to, but not contingent upon passage of, its proposed $200 million bond for November ballots.

With or without the bond, the district will sell or lease three buildings, an undertaking that Superintendent Adam Swinyard expects will generate $5 million over five years.

District officials already purchased a $12.4 million building in the University District at 501 N. Riverpoint Boulevard into which they’ll relocate the downtown district office at 200 N. Bernard Street in three to five years.

It’s big enough to also fit the Community School, a project-based high school in a 64-year-old elementary school at 1025 W. Spofford. The district will sell or lease the downtown district office, an adjacent parking lot and The Community School’s building for an estimated $7 million to $10 million. With this consolidation, Swinyard expects to save the district $750,000 annually in operations costs like light bills or custodians.

“By consolidating properties, we reduce ongoing maintenance costs, save on operations and unlock funding from asset sales and/or leases,” Deputy Superintendent Heather Bybee told the school board on Wednesday. “This is a long-term investment; by making these moves now, we’re positioning the district for stronger financial health in the future.”

The board praised staff’s “creative solutions” to address cost-cutting needs in the district while also giving the Community School a much-needed fresh space, said Principal Cindy McMahon.

“We’re really, as we continue to say, listening to our community and finding ways to ease the burden, the taxpaying burden. So words like ‘consolidating’ and ‘maximizing’ and ‘cost savings’ are great,” board member Hilary Kozel said. “And students do deserve to thrive and learn in a modern space.”

Property sale plans don’t end there, with further intentions to offload three more buildings if 60% of voters OK a bond proposal on November ballots.

School officials are proposing a $200 million bond, for which taxpayers can expect to pay roughly 6 to 31 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value in the next 20 years 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. Debt repayments expiring over the years means a property owner’s rate would increase by 2 cents in the first year of collection, should 60% of voters agree to the initiative.

If the bond passes, district officials would spend some of that funding on modernizing the U-District building for The Community School, among a laundry list of other projects. They’d also sell or lease the old site of Jefferson Elementary School that they’ve been using to house South Hill elementaries while those schools are renovated. Adams Elementary students and staff would take up Jefferson during their school’s reconstruction, a project requiring bond funding.

That’s the last of the South Hill elementaries slated for replacement, so the district could sell or lease the old Jefferson at Grand Boulevard and 37th Avenue.

The district also would sell or lease an operations facility at 4714 E. 8th Avenue and a warehouse at 2908 N. Nevada Street. The contents and employees of these buildings would be relocated to a joint storage and operations facility to be used by schools, the city parks department and the Museum of Arts and Culture. City police and fire departments could also store items in this space.

The school district bond proposal will be on ballots in November, as will a separate city parks department tax levy. The two will split costs and use of dozens of projects and are marketing their proposals jointly, though they’ll be separate ballot items.