It's the right time to support Bremerton school improvements

We would like to express our support for the Bremerton Schools levy and bond propositions on the ballot on February 13.

First, the continuation levy is critical to maintaining our current level of services for Bremerton. The levy provides for 15% of the District budget: 21% of teachers, 22% of Special Ed teachers, 89% of safety officers and much more. It accounts for all extracurricular activities — all athletics, theater, music, etc.

The bond will make necessary building updates. When our Bremerton Rotary group delivered dictionaries to all third-graders in the district again this fall, it was very clear to us how inadequate and crowded Armin Jahr and View Ridge Elementary schools are. The school staff were amazingly creative and adaptive to the situation. But these age-related building shortcomings certainly interfere with quality education, and Bremerton’s projected growth in elementary school enrollment is in this same East Bremerton area.

Replacement of these schools and Renaissance High School are worth the bond in and of itself. But it will also replace the District’s very old bus and services building and ensure clean air in all District buildings through HVAC updates.

This is the right time to approve this because: 1) clearly there is immediate need and 2) after approval the net tax rate for property owners will actually go down a bit as this levy and bond will replace the ones currently in place.

Larry and Mary Eyer, Bremerton

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: It's the right time to support Bremerton school improvements