If Oak Harbor School District voters approve a bond to renovate the high school, they would see a tax increase of approximately 85 cents per $1,000 assessed property value.

That’s $170 per year for a home with an assessed value of $200,000.

School officials say that tax rate will remain “stable” for the next 15 years, but acknowledge that the actual tax rate will increase as other district bonds are paid off.

Preliminary plans call for upgrading the infrastructure, replacing the roof, building new classrooms and widening narrow hallways. The project would be funded by a $54 million local bond and an estimated $19.33 million in matching money from the state.

Ballots are in the mail this week from the Island County Auditor’s Office. Election day for those who still vote at the polls is May 16.

School officials are configuring the proposed bonds so that taxpayers will see a stable tax rate throughout the duration of the bond. Estimates put that rate at approximately $2.58 per $1,000 assessed property value. That rate would include the maintenance and operations levy, the bonds voters approved in 1996 and the stadium bond voters approved last year.

When the current bonds are paid off, which happens in 2013, the amount of taxes paying off the high school renovation will increase. But property owners’ overall tax rate will remain the same. The renovation bonds are expected to be paid off in 15 years.

The stadium bond will be paid off in 2021.

Rick Schulte, superintendent of the Oak Harbor School District, said the proposal allows the bonds to be paid off faster and save money in interest.

“By doing that we are paying it off five years faster and save $10 million,” Schulte said. School districts can have up to 20 years to pay off capital bonds.

Oak Harbor resident Bill Burnett said in a written statement that there isn’t any language in the bond proposal holding the school district accountable to a 15-year bond.

Schulte said the bond resolution states up to 20 years because the district needs the time flexibility until it gets better numbers on interest rates and assessed valuations. Those numbers aren’t known until the district sells the bonds. Still, he fully expects a 15-year payoff.

Schulte said the school district has a good track record getting favorable terms for the bonds. After the stadium bond sale last December, taxpayers ended up paying $15.1 cents per $1,000 assessed property, which was nearly four cents less than the school district advertised in the months leading up to the November election. Those bonds will be paid off in 15 years.

“Everything we said about that, we did better,” Schulte said.

He added there is a strong expectation that the renovation bonds will take only 15 years to pay off as well.

Schulte also said it is in the school district’s best interest to have the high school renovation paid off by 2022. By that time Hillcrest Elementary School will be 30 years old and need renovation. The school district would need the bond capacity to fund the project. Approximately five years after that, the school district will look at renovating North Whidbey Middle School and the elementary schools.