It’s Thursday afternoon at Friday Harbor High School  and there are about 25 elementary school students building remote operated vehicle’s and mobile robots that buzz around picking up nerf balls. Technology Support Technician Nicholas Groseclose wheels out a brand new, giant touch screen computer and is instantly surrounded by ten year olds waiting to “draw” on the screen. They seem to innately know how to change the colors, erase, clear the screen and start over. They show me how to work my new digital camera. In another room students are creating working computer and phone apps. Next semester they will build three electric cars as part of a credited class.

We’ve all heard the saying “children are our future” and technology seems to be their future. That’s why voters should pass the Capital Improvements and Technology Levy  on Feb. 9.

The levy will help provide these kids with the cutting edge technological education they’re going to need to compete in a changing workforce.  Further technology training for district teachers and the addition of a new STEM classroom at Friday Harbor Elementary are just two of the numerous projects it will help fund.

Unfortunately the gap between what funding the state and federal governments provide and what is really needed to enable our school district to provide a high level education and to frankly, keep it functioning, is huge. This is where we, the tax payers, step in. The levy passed in 2012 expires this year, and much like a magazine subscription, needs to be renewed, this time as the Capital Projects and Technology Levy. The previous levy cost home owners a yearly tax of approximately $170 per $500,000 of assessed home value. This re-authorization will up that tax to about $230 per year for a home of the same value. Islanders who rent their homes are not taxed.

In the fall of 2015 San Juan Island school district created a ten member Capital Facilities Levy Committee which included professionals, retirees, parents of school aged children, “as well as several community members who had no direct involvement with our school district on a daily basis,” according to Joel Arnold, committee member in an open letter to the school district. The committee poured over each project which could potentially receive levy funding. The group then toured each facility and personally inspected the areas associated with each proposal. They prioritized the final list of projects by classifying each as “either mandatory to resolve a potential health and safety issue, required as failure to plan for the expenditure in this cycle would result in the risk of a much larger expenditure downstream, or as educationally significant because the expenditure would directly enhance the district’s ability to provide a quality and relevant education to our children.” The committee members did a thorough job of recognizing which projects directly affect our students while striving to maintain transparency. The full, finalized list of proposed projects, including monetary amounts can be found at www.sjlevy.org.

Other projects include such basic upkeep as replacing the rotting exterior trim on the middle and high schools, updates to Turnbull Gym’s locker rooms which haven’t been touched since the gym was built over 35 years ago. Not only is Turnbull gym a community owned asset and should be cared for as such but it is often “the face” of SJI school district schools as it’s where most athletic events are held. Not to mention it’s use in community activities like Island Rec’s evening sports programs.

Our kids have the potential access to a cutting edge technological education. Uber,the world’s first car-service app is currently recruiting college students in a race to build the computer program that will allow for the first driverless car. What if it’s one of our kids who creates it?

“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.” said Nelson Mandela.  Of the many programs island tax dollars fund, shouldn’t our children and their future’s make the cut? Please join us in voting Yes on the Capital Projects and Technology Levy on Feb. 9.

By Courtney Oldwyn

Journal reporter