Bremerton school bond focused on aging buildings that have passed capacity

On February 13, Bremerton voters will face a choice about whether or not to approve a 25-year, $150 million bond in a special election.

Two elementary schools on the city's east side, Armin Jahr and View Ridge, will largely be the recipients of the bond. Both are slated to be replaced, if voters approve — Armin Jahr was constructed in 1968, and has not seen any updates since the 1990s. View Ridge was constructed more than a decade earlier, post World War II, and now sits on an overall parcel of land owned by the school district off Wheaton Way that offers multiple options for reconstruction if the project moves ahead.

Other projects included in the proposed bond, which must be approved by 60 percent of voters to pass, include replacing the district's alternative high school, Renaissance, from its location near the district offices, upgrading HVAC systems at all schools in the district, and replacing a facilities building.

Aging facilities built for fewer students

View Ridge Elementary, just south of the Sylvan Way library and east of the busy Wheaton way corridor, houses 400 children, grades pre-k through fifth grade, though it was built for 300. About a third of the student body is situated in 12 portables outside the school, including preschool. The capacity situation, says Bremerton School District Assistant Superintendent Garth Steedman, is even worse at Armin Jahr, which sits not far from View Ridge on the west side of Wheaton Way, south of Blueberry Park.

“You know, these schools need to hold probably 600 kids. And yet right now, AJ [Armin Jahr] is bursting with 500 [students].”

Armin Jahr was constructed in 1968, and was last remodeled in 2004. Its current enrollment is 488 students, and its capacity is 481. View Ridge has been remodeled around four times, the last time being in 1994, but the facility was built in 1956, making it 68 years old. School staff and district leaders say the buildings are showing their age.

As Principal Korene Calderwood walks around the facility, she notes that the roofs have had leakage issues, pointing to a hole in the ceiling. The school was built open concept, sometimes called "California style" with open breezeways, which may not necessarily be the best design for the Puget Sound area's consistent rainfall during several months of the school year. Calderwood describes the layout as “maze-like,” and notes that the impacts of the buildings being outdated fall on more than simply repair issues, but also student learning.

“I think when you look at View Ridge and Armin Jahr, which were built in the 50s, were built for different purposes, different educational philosophies than we have now… so some of the purposes of building the school for educational purposes have changed over the years," Calderwood said during a recent tour. "And we are doing our best to meet the needs of our 21st century students in a building that was designed for the 1950s.”

Superintendent James Crawford says that having students learn in an environment like that is inherently obstructive to their learning.

“When we're talking about bursting at the seams, we're not just talking about portables, we're talking about things like the learning lab over there in the library..." Crawford said. "Kids sitting in the hallway…those basic learning experiences do not lend themselves to improving student achievement. They just don't. And if that’s the infrastructure that you have, that means that… we don't have the ability to be able to do what the best practices are telling us to do, because the very nature of that building is just bursting.”

If the bond is passed, new buildings on each campus would be built to accommodate 550-650 students, a need the district points to as Bremerton is forecast to continue growing in population.

Equity issues at district's most diverse schools

On a national level, low-income students and students of color tend to attend schools that are older and have more maintenance issues, according to a 2018 report to Congress by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. That's also the case for Armin Jahr and View Ridge, according to the school district.

“Armin Jahr and View Ridge are the most diverse elementary schools in the district," Crawford said. "And obviously, they're the ones that need the most work. And so you've got kids that are diverse, a large portion of them are impoverished, inside schools that aren't up to date.”

Armin Jahr's student population is predominantly students of color, with almost half being Latino, according to Bremerton School District enrollment numbers. And 70% of students come from low-income backgrounds. At View Ridge around half of the student population are students of color and 63% are low-income.

“We're talking about decreasing the variables that are getting in the way of actually improving achievement," Crawford said. "The basic variable that gets in the way is the fact that the foundation of the school is not supporting what the educational practices are saying...and so then when you walk down the hallway, and you look at the kids that are that are trying to learn in a situation as best as possible, they happen to be black and brown. That's a huge problem.”

East Bremerton community campus

View Ridge Elementary school sits on 23 acres of land owned by the school District, with the school's campus contiguous to several ballfields and what used to be home to East High School, and then Bremerton Junior High, which was torn down in 2018. The old East gym is now well used as a community gym on the property, and a Boys & Girls Club facility was built next door, but other land at the site sits vacant, like neglected old tennis courts behind the community gym.

Breaking ground on a replacement school for View Ridge could present an opportunity for further development in the campus. The plan released by the district offers two options for the new View Ridge school building, one near the current site and another closer to the community gym, which could lead to other changes across the property.

Crawford and Steedman both said that development beyond the school replacements has not been planned, and the specific site for View Ridge and any further planning is a later step in the process, with Crawford equating the final placement to "a bunch of puzzle pieces, basically.

In district plans a new Armin Jahr is situated on the current campus, next to the existing school. Renaissance High School is currently located in a building on First Street, near Forest Ridge Park in West Bremerton.

“What we've put forth in terms of a bond is what you "see on paper and that's the replacement of Armin Jahr and View Ridge, consolidated services, relocation of Renaissance and HVAC [upgrades] across the system. Those are the five areas that are part of this proposal,” Crawford said.

“So you examine what kind of land is available. Where can we build? What is going to be most fiscally responsible for us in terms of timing? All those factors go into play when you start to kind of move around where buildings actually ought to be.”

If the bond passes, Steedman says that construction would begin on the development next spring, with construction happening hopefully around June 2025.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Bremerton school bond vote on February 13 would replace three schools