A $600,000 piece that was haphazardly thrown into the North Kitsap School District’s 2001 Capital Programs bond has turned into a tenuous situation over the past few years between the district and Spectrum Community School — an alternative school housing about 100 students each year.

That $600,000 was initially expected to be enough to build a 3,000-square-foot bare bones structure at Spectrum’s dilapidated campus, however to many, it was clear from the beginning it would not suffice.

One of the main reasons being the estimate was based on straight construction costs in 2000 without regard to overhead costs like project design and management.

With that thought in mind, the Herald submitted a public records request to find out just where the figure came from and what exactly was promised to Spectrum through the $60.9 million NKSD bond — which was passed by voters in the spring of 2001.

“In this case … promises really have been made. A formal decision was taken by the board and presented to the voters,” Charlie Poole said in a Jan. 19, 2002 e-mail to the Capital Facilities Advisory Committee, noting the district’s pledge to Spectrum through the 2001 bond. “The voters approved it, creating a duty which I know the board takes pretty seriously.”

Poole was a member of the Capital Facilities Task Force and the CFAC, the first of which made recommendations for projects during the creation of the bond while the second group has been overseeing their construction.

The bond’s original intent – decreasing the size of the district’s elementary schools — had very little, if anything to do with Spectrum.

A $230,000 renovation of the community school had already been a part of the district’s 1991 bond. The list of projects developed for the 2001 bond included consideration of the complete demolition and rebuilding of Spectrum. That project, estimated in 2000 at $6.8 million, was dropped with the intent of picking it up as a future bond item.

Then, at one of the final school board bond study sessions in November 2000, the board — inline with community survey input — added the language “construction of a new multipurpose room” at Spectrum to the project list, at a cost of $600,000.

But, there is no NKSD documentation that determines where the cost figure for the project originated. Nor was there much further study into the project at that time, unlike the other bond items for which significant data can be found relating to exactly how their cost figures were generated.

“It should be noted that bond funds for Spectrum were poorly analyzed (understatement) and not the fault of staff or students who still have needs that the bond promised to deliver,” CFAC member Craig Smith wrote in an e-mail May, 2006.

Though no records are available, according to testimony from both Poole and NKSD contract architect Bob Harthorne, of Harthorne and Hagen Architects, the $600,000 figure was simply an educated guess by Harthorne at a meeting in 2000. As bond recommendations came down to the wire, Poole had convinced the CFTF to include the need for a space at Spectrum where all students could gather.

Members of the Spectrum community had already generated a drawing for a proposed somewhat circular space with a few bells and whistles of their desire, and Harthorne remembers being asked whether $600,000 was adequate for construction of that building.

He said the uniqueness of the proposed design would make it impossible to build for that amount, however a 3,000-square- foot bare bones structure – at a construction cost of $200 per square foot — was plausible.

Harthorne advised those numbers were based on the year 2000 construction costs and should the project be done later in the timeline, those costs would likely increase.

Also, the figure didn’t account for anything other than estimated construction costs. Project design, management and other overhead costs were not included in the informal estimate.

But $600,000 for a basic facility without restrooms was recommended by the task force, and eventually added onto the bond by the board. Bond information that was distributed to the community in 2001 said, “Spectrum is in need of a new facility to use as an assembly location for student body meetings, physical activity, large group instruction, musical and multimedia recording, theatrical and musical productions and meetings with community groups.”

The official bond resolution language, Jan. 23, 2001 calls for the bond to “construct and equip an addition to Spectrum Community School.”

On Wednesday, the Herald will look further into what that promise has evolved into.