Prosser seeks vote for new high school

PROSSER -- Prosser voters will weigh in this March on a $47.6 million bond to replace the town's cramped high school.

The school board voted unanimously Tuesday to place the measure on the March 10 ballot. If the bond passes, part of the existing school will be used as a satellite campus for Columbia Basin College.

The new high school would be built on land the district owns near Art Fiker Stadium. Officials have said it's needed because of overcrowding.

The existing Prosser High School -- which is in downtown -- is so cramped the district is leasing space in a nearby church for $1,500 a month plus utilities to handle the overload. The school now has about 900 students but was built for several hundred less than that, Superintendent Ray Tolcacher has said.

CBC plans to use the school's vocational building and some science classrooms as a satellite campus once the new school is built. The district also would move its administration offices into the existing high school.

Several departments moved out of the old administration building on Park Avenue earlier this school year because of space issues there. The superintendent and business offices now are in leased space downtown, which costs $2,700 a month including utilities.

If the bond passes, property tax rates would go up an estimated $1.96 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2010 over the projected rate for next year, the district said Tuesday.

The total bond tax rate -- including what property owners still are paying for a 1994 bond for facility upgrades in the district -- would be an estimated $3.55 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The district also is expecting to receive more than $20 million in state matching money for the construction project.

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