New school honors our investment in education | Editorial
Published 2:05 pm Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Walking the crowded halls of the new Vashon High School last weekend must have felt surreal for so many islanders. After nearly a decade of talks, two bond proposals and a year and a half of construction, the school district has delivered a building that has impressed the community while also honoring taxpayers’ willingness to invest in the schools.
As with most large construction projects, the building process hasn’t been all smooth sailing, and the school district has made a few controversial moves along the way. But overall we’ve been impressed with how school officials have chosen to spend tax dollars and handled what is said to be the largest-ever capital project on Vashon, showing professionalism and informed discernment that should be expected of our public officials but that doesn’t always happen. A long planning process with community input has resulted in an impressive new school that was delivered on time and within budget and, as many saw on Sunday, does in fact seem to reflect the community’s values and desires.
The new building is spacious and comfortable without being unnecessarily large. Classrooms are larger too and outfitted with new technology. A large and modern theater makes sense in a place that values the arts, and green features will make the school more sustainable and cut operating costs. Abundant windows fill the building with natural light, and wood accents set a warm tone and allude to the beautiful place we live.
Do students need an aesthetic environment, modern technology or even rolling chairs to learn? Of course not. The schools owe our students a quality education, but not necessarily one that happens in state-of-the-art facilities. But the district has put an enormous amount of thought into what kind of environment is conducive to student learning, in part because we’ve learned what doesn’t boost it. The old Vashon High School, designed based on trends at the time, was cramped, dark, configured oddly and sometimes unworkable for classroom needs. The new school is clearly the opposite, and it’s easy to see how, as one parent said, the building will “inspire learning.”
Sunday was a day to unveil the long-awaited high school to the community, but it was also a day the district set aside to recognize the community for passing a bond in 2011 and making the new building possible. Many towns across our state and country can’t give their students the gift of a contemporary new school to spend their vital high school years in — only in a somewhat affluent community is a project like this even possible. We’re right to be impressed with what the school district has delivered, but we’re also right to thank Vashon residents — many of whom don’t even have children in schools — who agreed that this new learning space was valuable enough to pay for out of their own pockets.
