10 years ago 1997
Learning to play together is one of the most important lessons in life one that will cost the Arlington School District $1 million. The Arlington School Board on Monday agreed to pay $865,000 for 20.6 acres in Gleneagle for use as an elementary school. In addition, the district will spend up to $175,000 to develop an adjacent three acres of city-owned property as a park. This is the first in what is hoped to be many cooperative efforts between the city and the school district to create facilities for multi-jurisdictional use. I think it is essential for agencies to get together and pool their resources, said School Board President Bob McClure. As a taxpayer, I wouldnt accept anything less. Superintendent Linda Byrnes agrees this is a sign of things to come. This is the first opportunity the district and the city have had to collaborate on a project like this, she said. Serious behind-closed-door negotiations with Gleneagles Woodland Ridge Joint Ventures over this particular school site have continued for several months. The negotiations followed years of discussion about Gleneagles contract with the city to provide a school site, said Deputy Superintendent Gale Hogan. District officials have been criticized over the years for not making a decision on purchasing the property sooner. However, many of those doing the criticizing were still under the assumption that Gleneagles developer was giving the district the property. There were no conversations about the gift of land, Hogan said, adding the discussions have centered on price and how the property could be used. Byrnes said the negotiations during the last two months have included the cooperative development of the city-owned park property. Its been about trying to make sure the public gets the best value for the money. If we collaborate, we get a better product that could cost less.

25 years ago 1982
Voters in Lakewood School District face a complicated and emotional issue in the proposed abandonment of a proposed second elementary school. Last year when taxpayers discovered that the first year property tax levy for those building bonds totaled $11 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, a vocal opposition quickly developed demanding some form of tax relief. When the regular tax levies were included, the grand total was more than $17 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. That opposition climaxed this summer when the school board decided to defease the bonds for the elementary school that is, formally drop plans to build that school and place the $2,075,000 in a special account to pay the interest due and in 10 years pay off the bonds. Shirley Britt, treasurer of the citizens group opposed to that new school, called Burdened Taxpayers Relief Committee, said the school board reneged on a promise not to sell the bonds for the elementary school until 1985. And then spent the interest earned on those banked funds instead of building up principal or paying the interest owed to lessen the tax burden. Those bonds were sold at an all-time high in interest rates, she said. The other side of the issue pointed out that an alternative for tax relief would be to leave the $2 million in the bank and allow the accumulating interest to pay off the interest owed and still maintain the principal with which to build the elementary school in the future. The need for another school is still there, said Ray Isaksen, an opponent of the defeasance proposition. Putting the school money aside in an interest bearing account, he said, would serve the same purpose as defeasance, but we would still be able to build the school when we need it in the future. If we want tax relief, we can have it and still keep the principal. Britt said the school boards record to date doesnt warrant that trust. They have used up the interest that money has already earned as fast as it has accumulated. I dont want to leave that money in their hands, she said. Isaksen said that state law does not allow the district to make a profit on the invested defeased funds so the money would have to be invested at a lower interest rate than the bonds were originally sold for and, consequently, the district and the taxpayers would lose about $250,000. We stand to lose that much money and still not have a school, he said.

50 years ago 1957
Construction work on the entranceway to the Junior High School gymnasium and auditorium was slowed up slightly last week when pickets of the Everett local of the Laborers Union showed up on the job, with the result drivers for the Arlington Sand & Gravel Co. refused to cross the picket line with ready-mix concrete. The contractors Van Werven & Van Andel, of Lynden, who are general contractors and have their own crews whom they move from job to job, moved in their own concrete mixer and are proceeding on Friday with the pouring job.