Everybody should know by now that the Auburn School District’s middle and elementary schools are full to bursting, aging, and lack infrastructure for modern technology, among other shortcomings.

The ASD would very much like to decrease overcrowding in the schools — which in the aggregate, currently stuffs many students into 41 portables — to increase safety, provide infrastructure for modern technology, equip schools with more energy-efficient heating, cooling and lighting systems, and improve parking and access.

But it will need the help of voters.

So on Sept. 2, the Auburn City Council threw its unanimous support behind ASD’s bond and levy propositions headed for the general election ballot Nov. 4.

Councilmember Kate Baldwin said after the vote she was pleased.

But Auburn resident Virginia Haugen fretted the district’s emphasis on technology.

“Sometimes my neighbors and I,” she said, “are concerned that the ASD may be putting too much money into technology, adding that the real lessons children should be learning are how to do arithmetic and speak properly.

“Our schools are so terribly important to our children. But we have to be very careful not to spend money on things that don’t have any real benefit to our children their parents, their grandparents and the entire community,” Haugen said.

Here are the two propositions:.

Proposition 1: School Bond-Building for Learning

If voters say yes to the proposed bond package, it would build Middle School #5 on ASD property on the Sumner-Tapps Highway East, replace 58-year-old Cascade Middle School and move it away from its present site to district property at I Street NE and 40th Street NE, and replace Alpac Elementary School on the site where it has been in the city of Pacific for 53 years.

Taxpayers would see an average cost of $1.04 per $1,000 of assessed property valuation, with bond costs not to exceed $490,000,000.

Proposition 2: Safety, Security, Facility Improvements, and Technology Replacement Levy

According to district officials, this six-year levy would make safety and security improvements at 16 schools and support buildings, enhance learning spaces, and provide new technology devices for all students.

The average cost would be 77 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, with the total cost of the levy at $110,800,000.

In the 2024 general election, the Auburn School District’s $532,100,000 construction bond failed to garner enough combined votes of King and Pierce counties in early returns with about 52.4%.

If success were a matter of winning a simple majority, that would have been more than enough to pass the bond, but the state of Washington requires a 60% supermajority for bond passage.

Over the last eight years, the district has built Bowman Creek Elementary and Willow Crest Elementary, and razed and replaced Olympic Middle School, Chinook Elementary, Dick Scobee Elementary, Lea Hill Elementary, Pioneer Elementary and Terminal Park Elementary. All projects came in on time and under budget.