Tahoma needs money to ensure that its students stay warm, safe and dry.

Those three words, which are the minimum threshold to house students, have driven a 2 1/2 year design and planning process that will lead to a construction bond measure likely to be placed on the April 26 ballot for about $120 million, give or take a few million.

The Tahoma School District Board of Directors discussed the final details of the bond measure at its meeting Tuesday night and asked staff to bring a resolution forward at its next meeting set for Nov. 30, though school district spokesman Kevin Patterson said the board could wait until March 11 to approve putting the bond out.

On Monday, Patterson said the drive behind putting a construction bond to the voters is enrollment.

“We’re full right now, and by that I mean there are very few spaces left in our schools to put additional students,” Patterson said. “Right now our enrollment is 7,394 and we’re projecting by 2020 we’ll have an additional 1,700 students.”

And unless the district builds a fifth elementary, adds classroom wings to Tahoma Junior and Tahoma Senior high schools, among other things, there will not be enough space for the enrollment increase the district anticipates.

At the junior high, for example, space is at such a premium for the 1,221 eighth and ninth graders the school’s staff has had to get creative.

“That building is the most crowded right now,” Patterson said. “We’re using up almost every space every period, so, there’s really no room. We have special ed classrooms in what was designed for teacher preparation and planning… because we had not space to put kids. You see that all over that building.”

Students at Tahoma High may have a class in portables that are near 40 years old.

And adding more portable buildings isn’t really the answer as the district is maxed out at most of the schools that have them as far as permitting and fire codes allow.

“When adding portables, you’re not adding bathrooms, you’re not adding libraries, you’re not adding cafeterias,” Patterson said. “So, the (existing) infrastructure is more burdened.”

Members of the school board discussed the election date options at the meeting Tuesday, reaching a consensus on April 26 because it would allow members of the Voice of Tahoma Education (VOTE) committee to mount a campaign as well as get parents in the district registered and put some distance between the bond measure the Nov. 2 general election.

Erin Weaver, who serves as co-chair of the VOTE committee in addition to being a member of the Maple Valley City Council, told the board that 59 percent of Tahoma School District parents didn’t vote in the last levy election this past spring.

“That means we’re not engaging parents,” Weaver said. “I don’t think (parents) are feeling the need. What they haven’t been convinced of is that something is at risk, that something can go wrong. We need to engage parents in a different way and at a different level.”

While teachers and students are aware of the lack of classroom space and all the maintenance that needs to be done around the district to modernize the buildings, parents may not be aware of all the projects a construction bond — if approved — would pay for in Tahoma.

Board member Bill Clausmeyer said it was important to listen to the input of the VOTE committee.

“It’s our duty to come up with the best package that serves our kids,” Clausmeyer said. “It’s our duty to put this out the public with the best opportunity to pass. This is not a Cadillac program. We’ve been living on borrowed time.”

Tahoma’s last successful bond measure passed in 1997 and carried the district through to fund projects through 2005. That bond paid for the construction of the junior high, expanded and refurbished Tahoma High, remodeled Shadow Lake Elementary, added a gym and two classrooms at Cedar River Middle School as well as renovation at Tahoma Middle School.

Patterson said the district tried unsuccessfully to run a bond measure in 2001 that would have paid for athletic fields and a performing arts center. A bond measure to pay for a performing arts center in 2004 failed, as well.

This measure would pay for considerably more, in addition to a fifth elementary and building a new Lake Wilderness as well as the work proposed at the junior and senior high schools, siding would be replaced at four buildings, heating and ventilation systems would be upgraded, a performing arts center would be built at the high school, Rock Creek Elementary needs a new roof, renovations would be done at Cedar River Middle School to provide more common area space, and the list goes on and on.

Over the course of 2 1/2 years, explained Craig Mason, an architect from DLR group, his firm has worked closely with the district, a citizens advisory committee and focus groups at several of its schools to assess the condition of the buildings, to develop designs that would help Tahoma meet its educational goals and integrate its Classroom 10 technology initiative.

“You have a good plan,” Mason told the board. “And I think it’s a prudent plan.”

Mason said the current cost estimates for all the projects district officials want to pay for with the bond measure is $127.5 million, but, Patterson said after the meeting the board would like to see that shrunk down to $120 million.

“With time and education, getting out there and talking to parents, hopefully clearer heads will prevail and will have a positive result,” said Tim Adam, the newest member of the school board.

Patterson said that while district officials understand this is not the ideal time to go to voters to ask for money for anything there is more damage done in waiting for the right time.

“We understand the economy and people are hurting,” Patterson said before the board meeting. “But, we also see a need to provide space for our students and ultimately it’s the community’s decision about where we go. We think it would be irresponsible not to take it to the community. They need to see what we’re facing and they will decide.”