If you are looking for a great place to settle down and raise a family in the Pacific Northwest, you can’t beat Ridgefield. Close to the Portland area’s jobs and amenities, it retains its small-town charm. The beautiful outdoors are as close as your backdoor. There’s a new full-service supermarket and soon to be an expanded library. Did we mention the schools are great?
That’s why Ridgefield, population 4,763 in 2010, now is home to an estimated 8,895 people, and growing faster than any other city in Washington.
That doesn’t even include the unincorporated areas served by the Ridgefield School District. A rural school district is rapidly becoming a suburban school district.
The school district, which has 3,400 students, reports receiving 1,400 new students since 2014, and expecting another 1,760 students over the next five years. Those new students need schools. And that’s the crux of the $107 million bond issue currently before Ridgefield School District voters.
It’s a big ask. If it’s approved, the owner of a home valued at $300, 000 would see a $291 annual property tax increase. No one wants more taxes. That’s why a 60 percent supermajority is needed to pass the bond.
The money would be used to build a new elementary school for kindergarten through fourth-graders and an intermediate school for fifth- and sixth-graders. New classrooms and a vocational building will be added at Ridgefield High School. And there would be money to pay for inclusive playgrounds at South Ridge and Union Ridge elementary schools.
Even if the bond is approved, it is likely that soon the school board will be back with another request as the community continues to grow. For example, the district will need a new campus for seventh- and eighth-graders as all of those elementary school kids age.
Last year, Ridgefield voters narrowly rejected a smaller, $77 million bond. This year’s request is greater because of the rapidly rising cost of construction and because the intermediate school was added to the project list.
Closely spaced bond requests look familiar to longtime Clark County voters. It wasn’t long ago that Evergreen Public Schools voters faced a series of facilities bonds as the district grew rapidly. That growth has slowed significantly as available land was developed. Before Evergreen, it was Vancouver looking to property owners to help fund growth in that district.
The sad fact is that residential growth doesn’t pay for itself, at least initially. Homebuilders already pay between $8,900 and $10,100 in impact fees to the Ridgefield School District, money that is used for, among other things, portable classrooms.
Suppose every available lot in the Ridgefield district — 5,650 homes — were to be developed, and the $107 million bond split evenly among them. That would add nearly $19,000 to the price of every single home. In a county with a housing affordability crisis, school impact fees of nearly $30,000 added to the price of every new house is a nonstarter.
So the choices before the voters are this: Vote “yes” and accept a tax increase of about $1 per home per day. Send your kids to schools with modern classrooms and adequately sized auxiliary facilities such as restrooms, gymnasiums, media centers and playgrounds.
Or, vote “no” and the school district will have to buy an estimated 57 portable buildings, containing 114 classrooms, and park them on school playgrounds. And that might not even solve the problem, according to the district.
The Columbian urges Ridgefield voters to do their homework. If you do, you’ll see that a “yes” vote is the best option for Ridgefield and its children.
