It was more than three years ago, on Nov. 2, 2004, when 19 community volunteers first met to begin the development of a campus master plan for the Vashon school district. The board of directors had charged this diverse group of Island citizens to develop an action plan that would allow the board to achieve a proactive approach to school facility problems rather than reacting to costly emergencies.

At that time, the district was just emerging from a panic over the prior summer, when a construction flaw in the relatively new Chautauqua Elementary School had necessitated an expedited repair funded with a $4.8 million emergency loan. Furthermore, the building housing the district offices had been declared uninhabitable, so the administrative staff had to be moved into temporary quarters in the Sheffield Building. With this multitude of problems, the committee began its work with a detailed examination of all district buildings.

It was heartening to see how well the committee interacted over the next six months. We spent many hours working with architects and engineers to examine the district facilities in some detail. For many of us it was an eye-opening experience. While the facility problems at Chautauqua and McMurrary Middle School were fairly straightforward, the Vashon High School buildings were quite a different matter. What we found was a scattering of eight separate structures of varying ages and conditions that were expensive to operate and maintain. In many instances these facility problems were barriers to delivering a sound education program. Beyond those considerations, many of the buildings did not conform to wheelchair accessibility standards and in some cases they presented issues related to public safety.

In addition to the high school buildings, several of the structures required to support the district needed repair or replacement. There was a need for a new building for the district administrative offices, and substantial problems were found in the buildings to support the bus fleet and the maintenance staff.

In developing a coherent facilities master plan, the committee explored a number of options in an effort to see which buildings were suitable to be rehabilitated and, on the other hand, which buildings could be more cheaply razed and replaced than rehabilitated.

We found that bringing old buildings up to current building codes is often more expensive than constructing a new building. We also found that the configurations of some of the buildings did not lend themselves to being remolded into facilities that supported the current education needs.

After many meetings with the architects, the committee developed a recommended building configuration that was presented to the board on May 12, 2005.

The recommendation of the committee was supported by all but two of the 19 committee members and carried an estimated total cost of $68.2 million plus an additional $4.8 million to pay off the emergency loan that funded the earlier Chautauqua repairs.

Of that $68.2 million plan, 68 percent of the cost was targeted for the high school.

These cost figures included reasonable contingency factors to account for inflation and unexpected problems. Additional estimates were also included to cover the costs of temporary buildings to house the classroom activities during the anticipated yearlong construction process.

While the committee as a whole had looked at a number of more expensive options, none of those were ever recommended for action by the board. The $80 million number quoted in The Beachcomber article was inaccurate; our recommendation was also never labeled the “Taj Mahal plan.”

It is unfortunate the board in 2005 chose not to take any action beyond a small capital levy to repay the $4.8 million loan for the Chautauqua repairs and fund an equity position in space occupied by the administrative staff at the Sheffield Building. As we now know, some of that $4.8 million for the Chautauqua repairs was later recovered from lawsuits against the contractors and diminished a part of the property tax burden.

So here we are in 2008 with the same old buildings with the same problems identified in 2005. A newly constituted board is now looking at a $70 million facilities plan. In the meantime, the costs of construction materials continue to climb, driven by increased global demand for commodities like structural steel and cement.

I hope that the board moves forward with this much needed and overdue action. No one likes to see his or her property taxes increase, but this investment in the future of our children and our community is sorely needed. Just “keeping the rain out” is not a reasonable prescription for supporting a viable education program.

Hanging on to old, expensive-to-operate buildings robs dollars from the operating funds to pay our teachers and wastes precious energy resources. In my experience, second-class facilities have never inspired students or teachers to do their best work. I urge all of the Vashon property owners to make a special effort to become informed of the details and actively support this important investment in the future of our community.

—Raymond Bucy, a retired engineer, chaired the campus master plan advisory committee for the school board