In late April I walked into Darren Collins’ portable classroom at Tahoma High and thought to myself, “Ah, so this is what they mean when they say the portables smell.”

Since the Tahoma School District’s construction bond measure’s failure on April 26, that memory keeps coming to mind, along with a number of other experiences I’ve had at district schools during the nearly six years the Covington-Maple Valley Reporter has existed.

And like many others I’ve wondered how is it the construction bond failed.

I even tried to hash it out and explain it in an article that ran in the May 13 issue of the Reporter.

During the campaign I received a phone call from a reader who told me he was in his 70s. He was concerned about the cost of the additional taxes that would come from the construction bond measure had it passed. For him — I didn’t get his name — the extra $400 or so annually was too much to bear on a fixed income.

And I totally understand that.

Now the King County Assessor’s Office has a senior citizen exemption program that would help with relief for affected homeowners. More information can be found on the county assessor’s website at http://www.kingcounty.gov/sites/Assessor/TaxpayerAssistance/TaxRelief.aspx.

Just an FYI for future reference.

But, he also mentioned a neighbor of his who was a paycheck away from losing her home. That I also understand having fought off foreclosure of my own home — not for financial reasons, but, that’s another story for another time — a year ago.

So, there is a percentage of people in the school district boundaries for whom the resulting taxes would have been a burden.

But, when I was at the Greater Maple Valley Community Center benefit breakfast in March, King County Councilman Reagan Dunn told the audience the median income in the city is $93,000 a year.

That means more than 50 percent of the city’s more than 23,000 residents make more than that annually. Yes, there are people who can afford the additional tax burden.

Including my family. It would be rolled into our mortgage payment. Yes, I live in the Tahoma School District. I have lived in Maple Valley for more than seven years now.

And like just about everyone else who has moved here in the past 10 years, the school district was one of the reasons I moved here, but now that I have a small child I am concerned.

We live near Glacier Park Elementary School which had some 900 students this past school year.

Had the construction bond measure passed, a fifth elementary school would have been built next to Tahoma Junior High, an elementary with capacity for 800 students. And that would relieve the overcrowding at three of the district’s four elementary schools.

And that school would have opened when my daughter will be starting kindergarten.

As readers know well, I served on the Kentlake High School Site Council during this past school year, and at our April meeting prior to the election Tahoma’s construction bond measure came up.

Someone asked what would happen if the bond measure didn’t pass.

Well, Tahoma district officials have formed an ad hoc committee that is evaluating the alternatives that were discussed during the election such as changing school schedules, and after a phone call I got on July 6 from a committee member it seems quite likely that year-round school is in the cards for the junior high.

I’m not sure how parents of district eighth and ninth graders will react to that possibility. It won’t happen this fall as the committee won’t make its recommendations to the Tahoma School Board until Oct. 8.

But, it will happen.

And, as I’ve told many people, if the district doesn’t use alternatives such as year round, double shifting or track schedules and make good on what some in the community considered idle threats, Tahoma will never pass a levy or bond again.

From a personal perspective, unless a fifth elementary school is built at some point in the next five years, I don’t plan to put my daughter in the Tahoma School District.

We know that the economy affected the decisions of some voters, and understandably so. Not a single school backed measure on a ballot anywhere in the state in April passed. There were a dozen and some considerably more modest that Tahoma’s.

Also, Maple Valley is a fiscally conservative community. It takes quite a bit to persuade voters here to support additional taxes.

Then there is the district’s history to consider. Voters who have been in Maple Valley long enough to remember past efforts figured the district would just bring a smaller, more palatable measure than the $120 million it asked for after the April 26 bond failed. Why not? It’s done it before. Apparently the last construction bond measure that passed in 1997 was on the ballot three times before it passed.

What’s frustrating district officials is the fact that no one will tell them why they voted no so all anyone can do is guess. So, it’s hard to campaign again if you don’t know how to alter your strategies.

One of my other theories is that people who voted against the measure, which required a super majority or 60 percent approval, haven’t been in a Tahoma school building lately.

I have and I know that while some voters think the district should make do with what it’s got, they asked for too much, or they made mistakes in long term planning, I can tell you that the schools are overcrowded regardless. I can’t even begin to think of what it will be like when the next wave of growth impacts enrollment numbers.

I have worked in newspapers for 11 years. I have covered a number of schools. Spoken to thousands of students. And I can tell you that Tahoma students are some of the brightest, most articulate, most thoughtful, most fun to work with, write about and be around.

But, crowded classrooms take their toll. These great students who have amazing teachers educating them with a thoughtfully designed curriculum will not be getting the same experience if things continue at this pace.

Before I started a family I voted for Tahoma levies and bonds. I live in a neighborhood with a bunch of kids. They’re all pretty nice and pretty well behaved most of the time. I’d like to think that by supporting the district and other people’s kids that they in turn will graduate from high school. Therefore it is less likely that they will torture my dogs or cat, egg my house or break into my car as it sits in the driveway. That’s my theory.

Students in the district, by the way, have noticed the unpleasantness of being in a crowded school. And they don’t like it. Distracted students don’t make for a good learning environment and that’s when trouble starts.

In the spring I was at Tahoma High during a passing period and was glad that I was bumping into students that I knew because otherwise I fear I would have been trampled.

In May I was at the junior high for the MSPE pre-test breakfast for eighth graders and the lunch room was full. I can’t imagine what that room is like during other parts of the day as the junior high has 1,200 students.

Rock Creek Elementary just got a new portable on its campus. Anyone who goes to the Maple Valley Farmers Market has likely noticed.

Don’t even get me started on Lake Wilderness Elementary.

And yet, the students persevere, only though because it appears it’s a temporary issue. I believe they have hope the district will pass a bond measure as much as the Voice of Tahoma Education committee members, who campaign on the district’s behalf.

What now, then?

I’m honestly not sure. And neither is the school board or district officials.

I do know this: Tahoma needs to pass a construction bond measure of some kind in the next two or three years. They need to add space at the junior high and high school so they can get rid of the portables. They need to build a fifth elementary school. And they need to deal with Lake Wilderness Elementary.

For anyone who hasn’t been in a Tahoma school in the past decade go visit one this fall and see for yourself what’s going on. Go to Cedar River Middle School at lunch time and see 30 kids sitting outside, rain or shine, because it’s too crowded in the lunch room. Walk into Darren Collins’ science class in Portable 12. The smell will hit you as soon as you open the door. Go to a Tahoma High music department concert or drama production. Oh, it won’t be at the high school, they don’t really have anyplace for that.

See for yourself.

And if you’re a parent, register to vote and then vote next time a ballot comes in the mail.

If after all that, all my talk, a visit to a school, and true introspection you choose to vote against whatever the next bond measure the district puts forth, then there’s nothing that can persuade you to do otherwise. And I understand why you might choose to do so. But, I will disagree.

Because I walked into a portable where smart kids build robots and learn about science, kids who are also in multiple AP classes, kids who go off and do great things in the world and I would like to see the Tahoma School District continue to educate those kids because it’s one of the primary reasons this community is great. This is why I love living here and why I love my job.

And I don’t think students or teachers should have to deal with smelly, aging, moldy portables or overcrowding anymore.