The Price Tag for Tacoma's Future Classrooms
Tacoma’s school board moves to put a massive quarter-million-dollar bond measure before voters to modernize schools and build a new high school.
The school board yesterday afternoon decided to submit to the people of Tacoma on April 23 a proposition to tax the district for $250,000. Of this amount, $100,000 is for a new high school building, and $100,000 for improvements to the grade schools. It was first proposed to ask for a bond tax of $150,000 for the high school alone, when Dr. Burkhart interposed an objection and said he would emphatically oppose any project that did not carry an appropriation of at least $50,000 for the grade schools. Other members of the board were induced to look at the matter in the same light, and when the resolution was ready for a vote of the board, it carried $150,000 for the high school and $100,000 for the grade schools.
“I would emphatically oppose any project that did not carry an appropriation of at least $50,000 for the grade schools.”
Debates over school bonds and whether to prioritize high schools or elementary buildings remain a staple of Tacoma civic life. This 1904 push for $250,000 reflects the early 20th-century scramble to keep pace with a rapidly growing city’s infrastructure needs.
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