Prop. 1 Facts & Information

Replacement Schools

DeLong Elementary
Built in 1953. DeLong serves students in preschool through 5th grade in the Central Tacoma neighborhood. 

IDEA High School
Built in 1912 as Park Elementary to serve students in grades K-5. IDEA now serves high school students from across the school district who want to study industrial design, engineering and art. Lessons focus on innovative design and prototyping.

Point Defiance Elementary
Built in 1959. Point Defiance serves students in preschool through 5th grade in the North End neighborhood.

Stanley Elementary
Built in 1971. Stanley serves students in preschool through 5th grade in the Central Tacoma neighborhood. 

Whitman Elementary
Whitman, built in 1951, is on Tacoma’s Register of Historic Places. With that designation, the school cannot be entirely replaced. However, the interior can be updated, much like Washington Elementary and Edna Travis Elementary, which underwent historic modernizations recently. Whitman serves students in preschool through 5th grade in the South End neighborhood.

Major Renovations

Franklin Elementary
Mechanical/electrical/plumbing updates; ADA improvements; site improvements; field improvements

Hilltop Heritage Middle School
Mechanical/electrical/plumbing improvements; envelope improvements; kitchen equipment upgrades; hot shop equipment

Silas High School
Tear down 900 classroom wing and replace it; envelope improvements on pool building

Central Administration Building
Building envelope improvements (tuck and point, brick replacements, window replacements, seismic earthquake safety improvements)

Professional Development Center
Classroom improvements on existing classrooms; mechanical/electrical/plumbing updates; ADA improvements; envelope improvements; kitchen equipment upgrades

West End swing site (former Skyline Elementary)
Mechanical/electrical/plumbing updates; safety and security improvements; ADA improvements; field improvements; site improvements

Nearly every neighborhood school will receive needed improvements and safety upgrades, taking care of basics like repairing roofs and mechanical upgrades so buildings last longer, saving money in the long run.

Proposition 1 will expand quality learning at nearly all neighborhood schools, for students of all backgrounds, ranging from early learning, to expanded classroom learning opportunities, career and technical education, on-track to graduate, and post-secondary preparation. Proposition 1 will keep the focus on student learning with up-to-date classrooms, quality food and nutrition service upgrades, improvements to playgrounds/playfields and athletic facilities, and exterior school upgrades to prevent mold and weather damage.

Proposition 1 will make basic improvements to aging plumbing and HVAC systems for clean air and safe water, ADA improvements to make schools more accessible for students with disabilities, and make seismic and structural upgrades for earthquake safety. Proposition 1 will implement Basic Life Safety and security improvements at renovated or replacement schools including controlled school entry, security cameras, fire alarms and sprinklers, and 911 emergency communications and intercom systems.

If approved, the Neighborhood School Improvements and Safety Upgrades bond measure would replace or renovate 11 aging neighborhood schools. It would also provide basic improvements across the school district; expand quality learning and teaching environments; and make health, safety and security upgrades. 

Take a look at the specific improvements individual schools would receive as well as what other school district sites students could access to engage with career and technical education. 

View proposed improvements by school

Baker Middle School 
Baseball/fastpitch turf field upgrades

Gray Middle School
Multi-purpose turf field upgrades

Lincoln High School
Additional Lincoln Bowl upgrades, concessions, bleachers and railings

Mount Tahoma High School
Baseball/fastpitch turf field upgrades

Silas High School 
Baseball/fastpitch turf field upgrades

Stadium High School 
Football field upgrades

Truman Middle School 
Turf field upgrade

ADA Improvements
Districtwide improvements as needed

Original Browns Point Elementary
Infrastructure updates to provide space that can be used for early learning classrooms and other district needs (HVAC, security, etc.)

Gault
Demolition and site improvements

HVAC Updates
Crescent Heights, Delong, Franklin, Jefferson, Manitou Park, NE Tacoma, Sheridan 

Lighting upgrades (interior/exterior)
Lincoln, Stadium, Silas, Mount Tahoma, Foss

Lincoln Tree Farm/Urban Forestry satellite
Safety/security improvements that will significantly increase the ability to host students

Multi-purpose district storage
We'll share details as soon as it's available.

Playgrounds
Roosevelt Elementary, Jefferson Elementary, Geiger Montessori, Sheridan Elementary, West End swing site (former Skyline), Harmon Park/Baker Middle School 

Playgrounds
Portables - Blix, Sheridan, Roosevelt

Transportation center relocation
We'll share details as soon as it's available.

Tacoma is the only school district in the state with more than 20,000 students without centralized food storage and production.

A central kitchen and facility for dry, fresh and frozen goods provides:

• Better quality menu items with healthier, fresher ingredients
• Increased access to local ingredients, food suppliers
• Better control over ingredients in menu items  
• More meal variety; ability to be responsive to students needs/preferences
• Reduced food cost and food waste

School kitchens will receive upgraded equipment to support the new service model.

The Maritime Skills Center is being developed as part of a Port of Tacoma waterfront campus and operated by Tacoma Public Schools. This funding supports Phase 2 of this project.

This partnership provides:

• Regional and international opportunities for Tacoma students
• Expanded career and technical education opportunities in the maritime industry
• Increased qualified local workforce
• Increased opportunities for local, high-paying jobs  
• Increased support of local economic resilience

Learn more about the Maritime Skills Center

While all schools have safety and security features, school replacement and modernization projects also include safety and security improvements, including:

• Controlled access and security cameras
• Card readers for school staff
• Intercoms to maximize building communication

Upgrades and improvements installed where they are needed.

Safe Routes to School improvements include school access upgrades and required right-of-way improvements for all new schools, and for some remodels.

This bond is in addition to current taxpayers’ bond debts. Passage of the initiative will not result in replacement or retirement of bonds. However, the district regularly reviews opportunities to refinance bonds for lower interest rates and this process will continue irrespective of the passage or failure of the initiative.

Tacoma issues bonds as authorized in the Board-approved resolution which allows the district to repay bonds for a period not to exceed 25 years (the law allows up to 30 years). Our last bond series sold in 2020 and current outstanding bonds will be fully repaid by December 1, 2045. The current rate for bond debt repayment is one component of our total tax rate, as follows:

Yes, roofs are being maintained all year to the extent that we have funding. We are always fixing facilities within the limits of the funding we have.

After more than a decade of work exploring a variety of potential solutions, TPS determined it would demolish the building and develop the property. (A fire at the site in January required that the demolition of the building take place earlier than scheduled.) The school district is currently exploring how the site will be developed for school district use.

More information is available here. 

The order of the school replacement projects outlined in the bond is not yet determined. If voters do approve the bond measure, the schools with the most need would likely be replaced first and open on a schedule of one per year. Something to consider while planning includes where students can go while their new school is being built. If there’s enough room on the property to build next to the existing building (and conditions permit) while students remain in their existing building, we prefer to do that, so students don’t have to move to a temporary building away from their neighborhood. 

Currently, with the approval from the 2020 bond, Oakland and Bryant are under construction. Bryant is scheduled to open this fall, and Oakland is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025. Following will be Lowell in 2026 and Whittier in 2027. 

More information is available here.

The school district has not yet determined a location for the kitchen. 

The former McKinley Elementary will continue to be used as a temporary school for staff and students when their replacement school is under construction.

The Madison and Willard early learning centers have been identified as surplus property, and the school district plans to present a proposal for the sale of these properties to the School Board. New locations for classrooms are being identified for next school year, should the School Board approve the sale of surplus property.

The continuing impacts in Tacoma of lower student enrollment, the ending of temporary, federal emergency relief funding (ESSER), and gaps in the state’s basic education funding formula require the school district to continue to make adjustments and right-size the budget for the 2024-2025 school year and beyond. 

With nearly 60 sites across the district where we feed students, no one site has the kind of storage, capacity, or efficiencies that a central kitchen will provide. Many of our sites require multiple deliveries a week to restock for the needs of just that site, and we're limited to doing business with those able to make deliveries to nearly 60 individual sites. A new facility would include cold and dry central storage, industrial cooking facilities far larger than what any of our current kitchens could handle, and be the hub of a system to distribute these items throughout the district in a way that reduces waste and makes us more resilient to supply chain shifts. Tacoma Public Schools is the only district in the state with more than 20,000 students that doesn't have a central kitchen. This facility will allow us to provide better food for Tacoma kids as well as improve our ability to do business with local farms and small businesses.

This will be a shift in how we do business. Instead of paying higher premiums with businesses that can deliver food products to all of our sites, by centralizing storage and adding central scratch cooking to meet more of our needs, we can use associated savings to run the new distribution processes.