Two Tri-City school districts will ask voters to consider multimillion-dollar school construction bonds in the Feb. 9 special election. 

The Kennewick School Board agreed to put a $107 million, 22-year bond on the ballot to pay for replacing Horse Heaven and Highlands middle schools, as well as upgrading other aging infrastructure districtwide.  

The district will receive $61 million in state matching dollars for the slate of projects. The district estimates its total school tax rate will remain the same, or about $3 per $1,000 of assessed property value. 

The Richland School Board will ask voters to consider a $94 million school construction bond, an amount about $9 million less than originally estimated.  

The slimmed down 21-year bond will pay for several school projects identified by a community task force as the district’s most pressing needs: renovating Chief Joseph Middle School; replacing River’s Edge High School’s aging portables with a durable modular building; replacing the roof, boiler, chiller and HVAC systems at Richland High School, Hanford High School and the district’s Early Learning Center; along with other school improvements. 

The task force initially recommended a $103 million bond in September.  

The reason for the reduced bond amount is because the district will receive more state assistance for the Chief Joseph project. 

It expected to receive about $12 million but once the district turned in the necessary forms, it learned the renovation work qualified for $21 million instead, said Ken Gosney, assistant superintendent of human capital and operations, at the board’s Oct. 27 meeting, when the board unanimously passed the resolution for the proposed bond. 

Already, the bond proposal is scaled back to the most essential projects, after the school district failed to pass a $314 million bond in 2024 – which would have included money for a third high school.  

As student enrollment has flattened, the task force found that there’s no longer a near-term need for a third high school. 

The new $94 million bond is estimated to have a tax impact of about 10 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, or about $50 a year for a $500,000 home, and will begin in 2028. 

If the bond passes, the district’s total school tax rate will be $4.52 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

The Richland district expects the overall school tax rate to remain stable through 2035. That’s when it will decrease by $1.43 per $1,000 of assessed value as previous prior school bonds are paid off. 

Go to: rsd.edu/district/bonds-levies/2027-bond.