Members of the Auburn School District board of directors were expected to pass a resolution at their regular meeting this past Monday to put before voters two special elections on March 10 – a bond and a levy with profound implications district wide.

Proposition One, titled “Auburn School District, Bonds for Replacement of Aging Schools, $239 million,” calls for improvements to aging facilities, including the reconstruction and equipping of replacement schools for Auburn High School, Olympic Middle School and Terminal Park Elementary School over the next 10 years.

District officials expect the bond would be issued in at least three sales.

Proposition 2 titled, “Auburn School District School District Capital Improvements Levy,” authorizes the district to levy an additional tax, providing for a total of $46.4 million for the district’s capital projects fund for facilities improvements and equipment for six years. It would start in 2010 and be collected in the school years from 2010-2011 through 2015 to 2016.

Since the middle 1980s, the school district has engaged in a capital facilities program to meet the needs of a growing student population and to modernize facilities to ensure that kids at every building get the same opportunities.

The 2004-05 Citizens Ad Hoc Committee recommended the district conduct a detailed, thorough review of all facilities and assess them against program and facility component standards. The district’s Steering Committee for the Facilities Master Plan reviewed this data, including cost estimates, in September and October of 2008. Committee members then decided which of the more than 2,700 items should be recommended to the school board for consideration for future bonds and capital levies.

Among the facility improvement recommendations were the following:

• Provide improvements to facilities that are needed during the next 10 years and are essential for the support of educational programs, school district services, building operations and building integrity.

• Do not provide improvements at the new schools, Arthur Jacobsen Elementary, Lakeland Hills Elementary and Auburn Mountainview

• Provide limited improvements at facilities recommended for replacement.

• Carefully consider the costs and benefits of improvements at facilities not recommended for replacement, but that will exceed their economic life span in about 10 years, including Alpac, Evergreen Heights and Gildo Rey Elementary schools, Cascade Middle School, and the district’s administration building.