Another new high school could be coming to the Tri-Cities if voters give it a green light.

The Richland School District is sending a $314 million bond measure to the ballot in November, with a new high school in West Richland as the signature project.

The new $232.9 million facility will be the third comprehensive high school in the district, along with Richland and Hanford high schools. It’s needed to ease crowding in a district that’s seeing its enrollment grow again after the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Our high schools are overcrowded. We spent most of the last year reaching out to constituents through electronic means, and then a series of town halls, and what we heard over and over again was that a new high school is a priority for the community,” said Rick Jansons, president of the Richland School Board.

The board voted on July 9 to place the bond measure on the Nov. 5 ballot.

What’s included?

It will need a supermajority of 60% approval to pass. The district’s preliminary estimate is that it would cost property owners 97 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, or about $242 a year for a $250,000 home.

The new high school accounts for the bulk of the bond’s price tag, but several other projects also are part of the package. They include replacing River’s Edge High School’s campus of portable buildings with a new “innovative learning center” and improving and upgrading Hanford High and expanding Richland High.

Additionally, the bond includes money for districtwide safety and security enhancements.

If the bond passes in November, the district will cancel the capital projects levy approved by district voters in February 2023 to cover those enhancements.

Going that route ultimately saves money, Jansons said.

“(With the levy), we have to borrow money to do the work right away because you collect the levy money over six years, unlike bonds. This would replace the levy. We’d be using some of the bond money, which is a cheaper interest rate than what we’re doing now in terms of loans, so there are some savings there,” he said.

Richland voters have a history of embracing school funding measures at the ballot box – from education programs and operations levies, which help pay for day-to-day district operations, to bonds that help pay for building and replacing school facilities.

The last bond – a $99 million package approved in 2017 – included a slate of projects, from replacing Badger Mountain and Tapteal elementary schools to building two new elementary schools and the new Teaching, Learning & Administration Center.

The new high school would be built on land behind the district administration center at 6972 Keene Road in West Richland. While the district has Richland in its name, its boundaries include West Richland, part of Benton County and even a small part of Kennewick.

The high school’s $232.9 million price tag includes $18.8 million in matching money from the state, along with money from the bond measure.

Pasco’s new high school

Pasco School District also is building a new comprehensive high school.

Sageview High is under construction now off Burns Road and is expected to open in the fall of 2025.

That district’s new small innovative high school, called Orion High School, is expected to open then, too. It’s being built on Salt Lake Street near Marie Curie STEM Elementary.