Proposition No. 1, the $50 million traffic bond on Issaquah ballots Nov. 8, just earned a new set of supporters — the Issaquah School District Board of Directors.

The school board voted 4-0 with an abstentian from Director Harlan Gallinger to officially support the bond at the Oct. 12 board meeting; at the prior meeting on Sept. 28, Issaquah City Councilmember Paul Winterstein had given the board a presentation about the bond, and two citizens had also spoken against the bond during public comments.

The 25-year bond is “designed to reduce congestion, enhance safety and improve local streets and related amenities,” according to the ballot measure’s official description.

The four bond projects include improvements to East Sunset Way, improvements to Newport Way Northwest from Northwest Maple Street to West Sunset Way, improvements to Newport Way Northwest from Southeast 54th Street to State Route 900 and a signal at Southeast 43rd Way and Providence Point.

Jen Gray, president of Providence Point Community, spoke on the Providence Point Board of Directors’ behalf in favor of the traffic bond at the Oct. 12 School Board meeting. She told the School Board that the signal at Providence Point is extremely important for the residents of the community.

“We have a lot of traffic … It is very difficult for us to get in and out safely. We are asking you to help us by endorsing your support for Proposition No. 1,” Gray said.

The School Board members discussed the need for a light at Providence Point with the idea of the district’s new high school (comprising approximately 1,600 students) and a new elementary school (of about 600 students) being located at the current Providence Heights Campus.

“You’ve got a lot of young student drivers who could be coming out of the high school and careening down in front of Providence Point,” Board President Suzanne Weaver said, noting how dangerous this could be without a signal at the intersection.

The bond has come under fire from some residents who say that it will do little for traffic congestion. However, with the well-being of students in mind, the School Board directors supported the idea of the bond as more of a safety improvement measure than a traffic cure.

“From the standpoint of students walking back and forth, of parents and buses going in and out of Issaquah Valley Elementary … all the different bus routes coming down Sunset, I think there is a lot of safety improvement that could be had from this bond,” Weaver said

“I look at this with a school district point of view, it really is all about safety. The growth of our school district and what that means … is important for us to be engaged and involved in,” Director Lisa Callan said.

Callan found through research that from student and staff drivers alone, “over 4,500 people are moving on a daily basis” in just Issaquah’s inner core, and she said that this number does not count parents dropping off and picking up their kids.

“We have bus trips on all of those roads,” she said of the streets included in the traffic bond.

“There is such a benefit to the students and families in our district that are in these areas that are impacted by the current conditions,” Director Marnie Maraldo said.

Weaver said that she has heard some of the bond’s critics expressing the viewpoint that the projects are not adequately planned out. However, she likened the traffic bond to one of the school district’s bonds, noting that when the district raises funds to build a new school, the design of that school isn’t necessarily planned out.

“When we float a school bond, we say, ‘We’re going to build a middle school’ … We don’t go to the time and trouble and expense of designing it until it passes,” Weaver said.

She did acknowledge that she was “sensitive about the fact that we’re talking about a bond that affects the cizitens of Issaquah, and only one of the five of us acually lives in Issaquah and would end up paying for that bond, so I don’t want to be cavalier about this.”

Director Harlan Gallinger abstained from the vote because, as a Sammamish resident, he said he did not feel that he should vote for a tax that he wouldn’t be paying.

“I agree, I want the roads as safe as possible for our families, our staff, our students. I think I have a hestitation because I won’t be paying this tax — it’s not a small tax … For me, since I don’t live in Issaquah, while I agree with what they’re doing, I have a hard time making an official comment on what they’re doing,” Gallinger said.

Callan, who is the only director living in Issaquah, spoke in favor of the bond at the City Council’s traffic bond public hearing on Oct. 3.