Homes around the district received LWSD’s Building on Success progress newsletter in their mailboxes in February. If you missed it, you can view the digital version, which includes these updates:

After more than a year of work, the LWSD Facilities Advisory Committee (FAC) addressed the Board on January 25 during its regular meeting. The FAC was tasked with making recommendations to accommodate the District’s rapid enrollment growth and continue to provide quality learning environments. The Board will use the recommendations to determine next steps, which could include sending a funding measure to voters in 2022.
 
You can see the final recommendations report and the FAC’s presentation to the Board here:

The district completed a Limited General Obligation bond sale in May 2020 for $75 million in order to front-fund the these critical capacity projects. Bonds will be paid back with the levy proceeds that are collected over the next six years. Program spending picked up over the summer as the LWHS addition was completed; elementary exterior cameras were installed; and elementary additions and entry control projects began. Of the total planned expenditures of $144 million, $33 million has been spent.

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Construction at Ben Franklin Elementary, Mark Twain Elementary and Rose Hill Elementary is scheduled to begin this summer. The three schools are receiving classroom additions funded by the 2019 Capital Projects Levy.

Updated construction schedules, designs and supply routes will be posted on each school’s project page later this month.

Construction at Rachel Carson Elementary will begin in 2021.

On April 30, 2020, Lake Washington School District (LWSD) sold a total of $118.85 million of tax-exempt refunding bonds, which will refinance $134 million of its existing debt, to take advantage of lower market interest rates. The refinancing will save the district’s taxpayers more than $18.6 million over the next nine years.