Most kids are in portables at these Pierce Co. schools. Will $137M fix overcrowding?
Early election results Tuesday night indicate that voters in the Orting School District are in support of a $137 million school bond — but the total number of votes is still below the amount required to pass it.
- YES: 2,108 (61.95%)
- NO: 1,295 (38.05%
In order to pass a bond in Washington state, the school district needs:
- A 60% supermajority
- A total turnout threshold that equals 40% of the last general election — a tall ask after record voter turnout during the 2024 presidential year. Kyle Haugh, the elections supervisor for the Pierce County Elections Office, told The News Tribune the bond needs 4,242 votes in order to meet that turnout threshold.
There are 3,403 total votes so far in the Orting School District election. This is 839 votes fewer than the turnout threshold requires. The Pierce County Auditor’s Office will release the next round of results at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Results will be certified on Nov. 25.
Citizens for Orting Schools posted the results on Tuesday night, saying they were cautiously optimistic the bond will pass.
“We still have to validate but this is good news!” the post says. “Fingers crossed for the coming days that the bond passes!”
This will be the fifth time Orting School District voters deliberate on whether to pass the bond since 2023. This is the cheapest package yet. Past bond measures were $150 million, but it has now been narrowed down to $137 million to include a new elementary school and a new, 200-seat Career and Technical Education wing for the high school. The schools currently share a 40-acre campus, and the new elementary school would sit on 65 acres of land the district owns adjacent to Orting High School, allowing the high school to take over the rest of the property.
Features that were removed from previous packages include HVAC improvements, safety and security measures for the other schools, and a gym and cafeteria expansion at Ptarmigan Ridge Elementary School.
Voters in the school district already pay $1.98 per $1,000 of assessed property value every year in levies, which go toward things that aren’t fully funded by the state such as extracurriculars and transportation. If the bond passes, this will add an extra $1.27 per $1,000, meaning taxpayers would pay $3.25 per $1,000 to the district each year. Someone with a $500,000 home could expect to pay the district about $1,820 each year if the bond passes, compared to $1,109 if it fails.
The district — which spans 45 miles across Orting and areas near Puyallup, Graham, and Bonney Lake, including part of the master-planned Sunrise Community in South Hill — is grappling with overcrowding. The principals of Orting Elementary School and Orting High School told The News Tribune in October that students face long lunch and bathroom lines.
“We have 100 kids that eat lunch out of our cafeteria – in the hallway, or in picnic tables out front,” Matt Carlson, principal of Orting High School, told The News Tribune in October. “We have kids sitting on ramps and stairs eating lunch.”
Connie Halvorson-Tran, principal of Orting Elementary, told The News Tribune in October that over half of the students are in portable classrooms each day. At Orting High School, the portables outweigh the regular classrooms 22 to 15.
Most of Orting High School was built in the 1980s, with some additions in the early 2000s. Built for 350 students, the population is now at almost 900 – more than double capacity.
If the bond fails, Carlson previously told The News Tribune that schools will be forced to take drastic steps to address overcrowding. That could include splitting a lunch period from two lunches to three lunches a day, and creating a “port-a-potty city” to address bathroom shortages, Carlson said.
“I’ll be putting teachers on carts,” Carlson told The News Tribune in October. “Teachers on a cart, moving from classroom to classroom, not having a set classroom, to accommodate.”
Ed Hatzenbeler, the Orting School District superintendent, said drastic changes could happen district-wide without funding for new facilities.
“For instance, students may start the day at 6:30 in the morning and some may start their day at 2:00 in the afternoon and go late at night. Bethel and Puyallup have both done those,” Hatzenbeler told The News Tribune in October. “You can look at year-round options where you’re two weeks on, two weeks off – something to maximize the space in a non-traditional way. You can fill your class sizes up full.”
The News Tribune has live results for other East Pierce races here.
News Tribune archives contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 8:32 PM.
