The Arlington School District has come to the conclusion that we need a new Post Middle School building due to the old Post building falling apart. It will cost the district $101,083,448 million dollars to destroy and rebuild the whole building. That will take a total of five years and  the new Post building will be ready in 2030.

How will this affect the people of Arlington? “So the benefit is, you know, after six years, it’s completely paid for, and a lot of this came from when. So in the voters guide, there’s like a pro statement and a con statement. For those against and those who are against previous bond measures, we’re questioning why we want to burden taxpayers with the 20 year bond measure, as opposed to a capital levy, which is like six years. So reduce that 20 year bond to only a six year capital levy, and it’s paid off. And so even though it is more expensive than a bond, like, for instance, like monthly, it’s about $64 a month, versus about $32 for a bond,” said Brian Lewis, Executive Director of Operations.

“So a bond requires 60% to be approved. A capital levy is 50% plus one, so the threshold for approval is much lower,” said Gary Sabol Director of Communication for Arlington Public Schools. 

“We’ve always, with the previous five bonds, we’ve gotten approved. Rule from about 52 about 50 to 56% meaning a majority of Arlington voters have voted in favor of a new Post,” said Lewis.

The middle school lacks indoor hallways which are a problem for security as well keeping students dry. There are several other safety and security concerns in addition to systemic upgrades being needed.

The Post levy will have almost zero effect on the students that are going to school. “If, it passes and we’re able to build any school, the new school would be built behind the existing school building, so kids would still go to school in the existing building. And when the new one was done, we just moved operations over to the new building,” said Sabol.

“The district has 5500 students right now, 1500 of those students go to Eagle Creek or Post. So a huge number, you know, 20-30% 35% of our students go to school in this area here. So whatever good things happen to Post benefit Eagle Creek. Another thing is that Eagle Creek students go to Post for middle school and Kent Prairie students go to Post for middle school too,” said Sabol.