In a first reading of the 2016 capital/technology and transportation levies June 11, Mercer Island School District executive Dean Mack addressed to the School Board that most of the single classroom portables within the school district will be demolished at the end of construction of the new elementary school.

“Most of our single classroom portables, we’ve had for a long time now. Most of them are rotting and need to be torn down, not sold and moved to another school district,” he told the Board.

“We’re going keep all the double-classroom portables. We have six of them, including the one that we’re just installing now at the middle school. Two will go to West Mercer, two to Lakeridge, and two to Island Park.”

Mack said two portable pads were being installed with the construction of Elementary No. 4, though the district doesn’t have any portables for that site and will only purchase portables “when and if we need them.”

He noted the district continues to see growth and will need more classroom space with downtown growth, incoming light rail and the Legislature reducing class sizes within the next few years in grades K-3. While the four portable classrooms remaining at each elementary schools may not be used initially, the expectation is they will help accommodate reductions in classroom size.

“Currently we are around an average of 22-23 students per classroom at that level,” Mack said. “We will be going to 17, so it just drives a need for more classrooms. All those things we’re getting prepared for within this levy.”

Mack told the Reporter costs of each portable ranged from $50,000 to $150,000 and that the district would sell anything in appropriate condition, but most of the portables had exceeded their lifespan already within the district.

“Portables are meant to be temporary housing and we’ve had them far longer than temporary,” he said.