In a tough economy, school officials hoping to modernize or replace old buildings face difficult choices. Do they try to sell the public on the idea that building now is a bargain? Or do they wait until voters are in a better mood to raise their taxes?

School districts around Pierce County are now facing those choices as they discuss what to do about a possible Feb. 9 election. The deadline for placing a request on the ballot is December.

Three local school districts – Puyallup, Bethel and Franklin Pierce – have already decided not to push their luck with bonds. Two other big ones – Tacoma and Clover Park – have yet to decide.

The Tacoma School Board discussed capital project funding at a meeting Thursday, and will take up the matter again on Nov. 12.

Big-ticket bonds are the traditional route to build new schools and remodel old ones. But Tacoma voters shot down a $300 million bond measure in March.

That leaves Tacoma looking this time at a more modest capital levy, ranging from $73 million to $107 million, which would collect tax dollars for a shorter period of time and require a lower threshold of votes to pass. (Capital levies need only a simple majority of yes votes, while bond measures require a 60-percent approval rate.)

School board member Debbie Winskill said a large bond measure would likely fail in February, while a smaller capital levy has a better chance of success at the polls.

“Everybody is in financial distress,” she said.

Meanwhile, members of the Clover Park School Board in Lakewood will meet Monday to consider funding projects recommended by its facilities advisory committee back in May.

The Clover Park bond proposal would raise $92 million to reconstruct Hudtloff Middle School, acquire land for a new elementary school that would consolidate Oakwood and Southgate elementary schools, and build a new Harrison Preparatory Academy.

Estimates of tax rates per $1,000 of assessed property value are not yet available, according to Clover Park spokeswoman Kim Prentice.

“We are looking to maintain a level bond tax rate,” Prentice added.

All around the Puget Sound area, the stakes are high. While every school district has a list of aging schools that needs replacement or repair, officials must balance capital needs with the need for day-to-day operating funds.

Most local districts already plan to ask voters in February to approve taxes to fund ongoing operations. Those levies can pay for 20 percent or more of a district’s day-to-day activities.

School leaders are wary of jeopardizing passage of operating levies by asking too much of voters at one time.

“We have to give people some opportunity for relief,” Franklin Pierce Schools Superintendent Frank Hewins said.

His district will ask voters to approve an operating levy and a technology levy in February, but has decided to pass on bond requests until at least 2012.

Franklin Pierce bond requests failed twice in 2008.

“At the time, the economy was starting to sour and gas prices were inching up,” Hewins said. “It was scary for people.”

“The needs are pressing and they will continue to be pressing,” said Franklin Pierce Schools spokesman Willie Painter.

But the district simply can’t survive without local levy dollars, he said.

The Franklin Pierce School Board is scheduled to consider placing two levy requests on the ballot at its Nov. 10 meeting.

School officials in Puyallup have also decided it’s a bad time to ask voters to approve a bond measure. They will stick with an operations levy only on the February ballot. The four-year replacement levy will help support teachers, smaller class sizes, school safety, textbooks, and athletics. The levy replaces one approved in 2006 that expires at the end of 2010.

The Bethel School District last asked voters for bond approval in 2006, and won’t ask for another bond measure in February.

The $175 million raised by the 2006 bonds helped pay for three schools that opened this year – Nelson and Frederickson elementary schools and Liberty Junior High School. Modernization projects are also under way at Spanaway Lake High School and elsewhere.

The district is also scheduled to replace two elementary schools in 2011 and 2012.

“We are very grateful to voters and we are working very hard to keep the promises we made in 2006,” said Bethel schools spokeswoman Krista Carlson. “There are still many projects on our list that need to be completed.”

Tacoma has remodeled or rebuilt about half of the city’s schools in the past 25 years, but district officials say they are committed to finishing the job.

The most pressing projects on Tacoma’s to-do list include Baker, Hunt and Stewart middle schools. The district has already paid for designs to rebuild Baker and Hunt.

Tacoma’s board is now looking at a capital levy to be collected over six years, beginning in 2011.

The board has looked at two scenarios. One would cost taxpayers 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. It would raise $73 million and create a total tax rate for the school district of $5.31 per $1,000 in 2011 and beyond.

The second option would cost 50 cents per $1,000, and would raise $107 million. It would create a total tax rate of $5.56 per $1,000.

Both scenarios assume the district also passes its operations levy on Feb. 9. Passing that levy would bring the total tax rate to $5.06 per $1,000. The cost of a capital levy would be added to that.

Staff writer Joyce Chen contributed to this report.

Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635

debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com

TO LEARN MORE

The Clover Park School Board meets at 5 p.m. Monday in the district Student Services Center, 10903 Gravelly Lake Dr., Lakewood. On the agenda: A resolution on school construction funding.

You can find a report from the school district’s Facilities Advisory Committee on the district Web site: www.cloverpark.k12.wa.us. Click on the report listed under Announcements.

The Franklin Pierce School Board will consider a resolution asking voters to approve both operations and technology levies at its Nov. 10 meeting. The board meets at 7 p.m. in the district board room, 315 129th St. S., Tacoma.

The school district will host a community forum on the levies at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 12 at Franklin Pierce High School, 11002 18th Ave. E.

The Tacoma School Board will learn more about options for capital and operations levies at its Nov. 12 meeting. The board meets at 6 p.m. in the fourth floor auditorium of the district administration building, 601 S. Eighth St., Tacoma.