Is it True?
|
IS IT TRUE THAT THE BOND CAUSES A 40% TAX INCREASE? No.
The claim of a 40% tax increase for the April 2025 bond measure is misleading and untrue. The signs you see around town derived the 40% calculation by using a model prepared by the investment bank Piper Sandler more than a year ago for the school district. Those calculations were projections with predicted property value increases, and those projections did not occur. Furthermore, the claim may appear to be about your total property tax when we’re actually voting on increasing the local School portion. Either way, 40% is wrong. The property tax bill increase is slightly under 7% using multiple methods shown below (both investment banker math and simple equations). None of the results reach 40%. Here is the breakdown of your property taxes. Note that the local Schools portion in purple is 21.3% of your total property taxes (purple). 
|
Piper Sandler Projections
The Piper Sandler model was predicated on a median Mercer Island home value of $2,296,811 in 2025 and a 3% increase to $2,365,715 in 2026. The King County Assessor's office has released their 2025 report for Mercer Island with the median home value assessed at $2,036,000 which is $260,811 below the model prediction.* Updating the assessed value in the Piper Sandler model results in a tax bill increase of $1,029 rather than the originally predicted $1,282 for the median home. Using actual data and the Piper Sandler calculation, the total property tax bill increase is slightly under 7%. The portion of the property tax for local Schools is slightly under 33%. * Source https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/assessor/buildings-and-property/property-value-and-information/reports/levy-rate-reports/-/media/king-county/depts/assessor/buildings-property/reports/levy-rate-info/city-tax-comparison/2024-2025/2025councildist-median-avchg-MercerIsland.ashx Standard Percentage Calculation Instead of the Piper Sandler model, you can also calculate the increase using the standard percentage equation; and we arrive at nearly the same place. On Mercer Island, 21.3% (purple) of our property tax is the local School tax. Your local School tax is approved by Mercer Island voters, and the funding stays on MI. See the Mercer Island School Taxes image below showing historical and projected School tax rates, also prepared by Piper Sandler. Your local School tax portion would grow from $1.44 to $1.89 with the School Bond approved. Property Tax increase = ($6.99 - $6.54) / $6.54 = 0.688 = 6.9% Local School increase = (($1.89 - $1.44) / $1.44) = 0.31 = 31.3% Using the percentage equation, the total property tax bill increase is slightly under 7%. The portion of the property tax that is the local School tax increase is still under the Piper Sandler projection of 33%. 
|
|
IS IT TRUE THAT MISD HAS "DECLINING ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE" AND 1 in 4 STUDENTS FAIL MATH AND SCIENCE GRADE-LEVEL KNOWLEDGE? No.
The claim of declining MISD academic performance is not valid. The claim that 25% of MISD students are failing to meet grade-level standards per OSPI data is completely false. Using OPSI Data, the Math, Science, and English Language Arts (ELA) percentage of students below grade level hover around 5% for MISD, with 2-3 times that for Bellevue. Of course, we want all students to be achieving at or above grade-level. MISD identifies and provides students with additional support if they are not meeting grade-level knowledge. The Bond is for the buildings. Our students deserve secure, safe, compliant spaces to learn. |
|
|
IS IT TRUE THAT APPROVING THE BOND WILL GIVE THE WRONG SIGNAL TO THE SCHOOL BOARD'S OVERSIGHT? No.
School Board Directors are elected by voters. If you have an issue with a School Board Director, use those elections. School Board Directors do not manage school construction. School Board Directors are prohibited from moving bond funds for other uses. Following best practices, MISD will be creating a separate line item for each Bond issuance, as bonds are sold when the funding is needed. Brandy Fox is the project manager and MISD representative for these projects. She will determine when funding is needed and when contractors are paid by the district. She has managed every major capital improvement for MISD schools since 1995, and every one of them has been on budget. The MISD students need secure, safe, compliant buildings with appropriate learning spaces; and opinion of the school board is not a reason to deny our outstanding students what they need. |
|
|
IS IT TRUE THAT MISD HAS "DECLINING ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE" INDICATIVE OF ENROLLMENT DECREASING? No.
The claim that fewer students are in the district because of declining academic performance is not valid. Between the 2018-2019 and 2024-2025 school years, enrollments have dropped in all Eastside school districts, except Lake Washington (LWSD) which increased by 1%. Note that districts with fewer students had a larger percent enrollment decline. Bainbridge is included because it is a comparable size to MISD. OPSI data. MISD and Private Enrollment data from MISD. Data doesn’t support an “exodus” of students leaving MISD to go to private school. Student’s families moving from district account for 50% of the self-reported reasons for withdrawing. There are years and grade levels when MISD gains students, as well as years and grade levels where both public and private lose students. It's absolutely true there are fewer students enrolled, and that is impacting both public and private schools. Note the enrollment data for students living on Mercer Island across MISD and private schools. There is no data showing a trend of leaving public to go private. The percentage attending private remains constant. The post-pandemic drop in student enrollment seen on Mercer Island has also been seen in neighboring districts. In early 2023, public school enrollment in the four-county Puget Sound region (King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties) was still about 23,000 students below where it was in October 2019, prior to the start of the pandemic. In King County, enrollment is about 13,000 fewer students than it was before the pandemic. |
|
|
IS IT TRUE THAT THE BOND DOES NOT SHOW THE ENTIRE FUNDING PICTURE? No.
Piper|Sandler is the firm that serves as a financial advisor to the Mercer Island School District (MISD), assisting with bond-related financial strategies, planning, issuance, and compliance. All bond related data and analysis is transparent and available. Mercer Island school taxes are currently $1.44 (2024) and would increase to $1.89 (2026) with the voter's approval of the Bond. Mercer Island school taxes are currently the LOWEST on the Eastside. And, after the bond passed the school tax rate remains the LOWEST. MISD is demonstrating fiscal responsibility by - Keeping the Mercer Island school taxes the lowest on the Eastside, even after the bond passes. - Leveling the school taxes over time, providing predictability for taxpayers. - Refinancing existing debt to save taxpayers $1.5MM. |
|
|
IS IT TRUE THAT THERE ARE FUTURE BONDS PLANNED FOR HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS? No.
The claim that the Long-Range Facility Plan includes future school bonds of $116MM in 2027, $136MM in 2029, and $150MM in 2031 is simply fabricated. Another version of this claim is that district projects an additional $248,000,000 in future bonds for elementary schools over the next 4 to 12 years. Completely false. There are no projected future bonds for elementary schools in 4-12 years. When asked about this, MISD's response was simple: The Mercer Island School District does not have three more bonds planned. In the future, there will be another long range planning committee and community engagement process to determine the next set of facility needs. Ask MISD yourself by emailing [email protected]. How did this claim get made? The document cited is a PLANNING document. This is how planning works: ideas are generated, options considered, and a plan is formed. There are NO bonds planned, no costs determined, no timing determined, no approval by the School Board. In fact, Piper Sandler shows the rate for our local Schools to be FLAT FOR THE NEXT 14-YEARS. That’s consistent with what MISD has been doing, a decade between bonds. In 2014, the bond built half of IMS, Northwood, and classrooms at MIHS. Now, 11- years later, a new bond is requested for the other half of IMS and work at MIHS. It’ll take awhile to get that rolling, so the 12-14 duration is consistent with what we’ve experienced. Yes, there will be a bond in the future. A planning committee will be formed, recommendations discussed, community engagement available, and options considered. The school board will vote to see which option goes to the voters. For this bond, there were several options considered in order to hone in on the right plan over the last few years. Four scenarios were covered in the Long-Range Facility Plan, and Option C was selected for detailed costing as the bond proposal. |
|
|
IS IT TRUE THAT MERCER ISLAND PAYS MORE PER STUDENT THAN BELLEVUE, BAINBRIDGE, ISSAQUAH AND NORTHSHORE? No.
Here's the false claim: "This bond is expensive, don’t be misled by “low tax rate” claims. High MI home values mask the burden. MI rates are low because our home values are high. If this bond passes, MI will pay well over $1,000 more per student than Bellevue, Bainbridge, Issaquah and Bothell and $900 more than Redmond." This claim is simply not true. Mercer Island school taxes are the lowest on the Eastside by the amount of money collected, tax rate, and dollar per student. Here’s the total breakdown of all school taxes collected in 2024 - the most current year of available data for King County. https://dor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-11/PropTx2024.pdf Total revenue Collected Mercer Island $28,945,534 Bellevue $223,913,097 Lake Washington $248,684,678 Number of Students Mercer Island 4,057 Bellevue 19,089 Lake Washington 30,605 Per Student Mercer Island $7,134.71 Bellevue $11,729.95 Lake Washington $8,125.62 |
|
|
IS IT TRUE THAT THE BOND IS UN-FOCUSED AND NOT ACCOUNTABLE? No.
Mercer Island voters definitely want school bonds to be well-defined and right-sized. This bond has tightly defined scope, accountability to taxpayers with the same cost as the previous bond 11-years ago, and keeps our school taxes the lowest on the Eastside. Is the April 2025 Bond well defined? Yes. The scope is well defined, costed, and the timeline for construction has been planned. The April 2025 bond will provide a secure, safe, and compliant school environment for IMS and MIHS which all of our students enjoy. The bond includes studying and planning for what to do with the 3 aging elementary schools in the future. Is the April 2025 Bond right-sized? Yes. At $165MM, the bond is LESS in today’s dollars than the previously approved 2014 bond. The bond does not include all the things that the community wanted, rather it includes the high-impact, safety, and compliance related items that will serve every student in the district as they go through middle and high school. Plus, school tax rates REMAIN the LOWEST on the Eastside, even after the bond is passed. Mercer Island voters have rejected two bond proposals in the last 35-years. This Bond reflects what has been learned from voters: well defined and right-sized bonds are supported by voters. - The 1990 bond was extra large in scope and cost, and it was rejected by voters. After the 1990 failure, bonds were passed in 1993, 1994, and 1996 to do the scope in smaller more well-defined pieces. - The 2012 bond also extra large in scope and cost. It was to REPLACE the middle school, REPLACE ALL 3 elementary schools, and add 12-classrooms to the high school. After the 2012 failure, a 2014 Bond passed with a 74% approval by voters. The 2014 bond was right-sized to HALF of the middle school, a NEW elementary (Northwood), and 12-classrooms in the high school. The 2014 bond was $98.8MM, which is $172MM in today’s dollars. |
|
IS IT TRUE THAT THE BOND HAS TOO MANY "nice to haves"? Let's investigate this.
Fact: Our community will need to do maintenance and improvements on our aging schools over time.
What is the No side considering a "nice to have"?
Based on those MISS email, apparently there is concern about the language used to describe the improvements. Yes, the design includes natural light, a safe courtyard, learning spaces outdoors, and collaborative spaces to learn. These are all things the No side objects to.
The most important part of the IMS work is that the school will be one building, providing increased security for all middle school students. The “one roof” concept that MISS objects to is best practice for security according to multiple studies. An easy internet search will show who recommends this and why.
MISS also objects to some of the projects "not being capital projects." When you do a capital project, you also do the finishes necessary to complete the work. Experts have staged the work so that there is minimal impact to students, so yes, the paint and gym finishes are included.
MISS calls out “inclusive bathrooms”, seemingly objecting to the term used. Seriously, go to the Mercer Island Community Center. There are two restrooms upstairs: a women’s restroom and a men’s restroom. Downstairs there are two all-gender single-use restrooms. Surprise, those are inclusive bathrooms. That’s the plan for MIHS, a few single-use restrooms.
MISS also objects to ADA improvements. No comment.
Let's remember the effort and trade-offs of the 30+ Mercer Islanders who were part of the Long Range Planning Committee and worked for 2+ years to develop the plan. At MIHS, they took 58 proposed improvements and reduced it to 8, gaining agreement on the right plan to go forward to the school board. They developed 4 options, and the least cost option was approved by the School Board 5-0.
A lot of talented and dedicated Mercer Island residents, experts in design, education, and engineering, developed this plan for our students to have a functioning and pleasant environment for learning.
Fact: Our community will need to do maintenance and improvements on our aging schools over time.
What is the No side considering a "nice to have"?
Based on those MISS email, apparently there is concern about the language used to describe the improvements. Yes, the design includes natural light, a safe courtyard, learning spaces outdoors, and collaborative spaces to learn. These are all things the No side objects to.
The most important part of the IMS work is that the school will be one building, providing increased security for all middle school students. The “one roof” concept that MISS objects to is best practice for security according to multiple studies. An easy internet search will show who recommends this and why.
MISS also objects to some of the projects "not being capital projects." When you do a capital project, you also do the finishes necessary to complete the work. Experts have staged the work so that there is minimal impact to students, so yes, the paint and gym finishes are included.
MISS calls out “inclusive bathrooms”, seemingly objecting to the term used. Seriously, go to the Mercer Island Community Center. There are two restrooms upstairs: a women’s restroom and a men’s restroom. Downstairs there are two all-gender single-use restrooms. Surprise, those are inclusive bathrooms. That’s the plan for MIHS, a few single-use restrooms.
MISS also objects to ADA improvements. No comment.
Let's remember the effort and trade-offs of the 30+ Mercer Islanders who were part of the Long Range Planning Committee and worked for 2+ years to develop the plan. At MIHS, they took 58 proposed improvements and reduced it to 8, gaining agreement on the right plan to go forward to the school board. They developed 4 options, and the least cost option was approved by the School Board 5-0.
A lot of talented and dedicated Mercer Island residents, experts in design, education, and engineering, developed this plan for our students to have a functioning and pleasant environment for learning.
|
From MISS: "We analyze these academic outcomes as problems not addressed in the bond: 1 in 4 students are not on track for college-level math and science learning without remedial classes."
This is simply UNTRUE. The stat that MISS references includes students who don’t take the evaluation, and those student’s 0 scores are included in the data. You REALLY have to stretch reality to say that MISD is not providing an outstanding education for students. Our students are accomplished and amazing individuals who've been supported by parents, teachers, coaches, and a whole community that supports them. The MISS implication that they're not ready for college or failing is absurd. Class of 2024 College Map. Nationally and internationally, our students are prepared and successful. MIHS Newsletters. Check out the range of accomplishments here. Guaranteed Islander pride! MIHS Profile. Impressive. [Not that it’s worth writing, but this metric (on-track for college-level math and science’) which includes zeros for students who choose not to take the test is higher at Mercer Island than Bellevue, Lake Washington, Issaquah, and Northshore.] |
|
|
IS IT TRUE THAT THE SCOPE OF THE BOND HAS NO DIRECT LINKAGE TO IMPROVING ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE? No.
The claim is that the scope of the bond doesn’t improve academic performance. That’s not true. Students can certainly learn in old buildings. However, students need to have buildings with functioning HVAC, fire alarm systems, and plumbing. It’s likely that everyone can agree on that. There are numerous evidence-based studies which do connect increased academic performance to the school learning spaces. Here’s a couple of the studies:
Students are learning differently these days. There are traditional classrooms in every building where a teacher lectures, and students listen. However, today’s learning is far more collaborative. Students are increasingly working together in small groups; and this Bond creates small, medium, and large spaces for that. Some spaces are very open and some small spaces allow for doors to be closed so that the kids can concentrate. The award-winning performing arts programs at MI Schools have been booming, yet the spaces reserved for choir, band, orchestra, etc. are far too small and poor acoustically. At IMS, kids are playing their instruments in the halls because they have no place else to go. The spaces for the sciences at both IMS and MIHS are also inadequate and insufficient for the volume of kids that want to be in those programs. For example, the robotics program has more students than the very limited space accommodates. The radio program now has over 150 students, and adequate space is needed. This Bond is for the buildings. Our outstanding students need spaces to learn. |
|
Get your questions answered
If you'd like to see a question added to this list, please email us at [email protected]
For more detailed information on the bond, please visit the Mercer Island School District website.
For more detailed information on the bond, please visit the Mercer Island School District website.