Seattle School Board members want to know more about where the money would come from and which projects would get deferred as a result of adding money to the Denny Middle School-Sealth High co-location project.

District staff told board members last week that the $10 million proposed added budget funds for the $125 million bond/levy project would come from some infrastructure and technology projects in the current Building Excellence III program.

About $5 million would come from deferring indoor air and water quality improvements at Salmon Bay alternative school in Ballard and Summit K-12. Another $3.5 million would take away from planned technology improvements at some schools, and $1.5 million would come from the district's excess debt service fund.

These projects would likely be restored in the next capital improvement bond, said Don Gilmore, project manager for the Building Excellence III program.

New board members Sherry Carr, Peter Maier and Steve Sundquist said they wanted more details on exactly which projects would be delayed and at which schools before they take action on the proposal.

The district is still moving forward with option one: rebuild Denny next to Sealth and make major structural and safety upgrades to the high school. The schools would be joined by a divisible galleria and have some shared spaces.

About $2 million has already been spent on this design, developed by Bassetti Architects.

Gilmore presented the board with Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson's preferred choice, a second option that mirrors the current plan, but puts another $10 million into the pot for additional upgrades to Sealth for various interior and exterior improvements.

A third option is to keep the schools where they are and give Denny a full rebuild. But Sealth would only receive basic safety upgrades and the project would go another $15 million over budget, according to the district.

The board is scheduled to take a vote on which option to proceed with at its next meeting, Feb. 27.

Carr asked to be told where the other $5 million would come from under the third option before the vote.

The completion schedule stays the same under both joint campus plans; construction would begin this summer and end in August 2011. A delay of one to two years is expected under the separate campus option for a new design of Denny and permitting work.

There's been much debate about whether the community was adequately informed about the joint campus plan before voters approved within the $490 million bond/levy a year ago. It was explained on a district-distributed pamphlet mailed to 45,000 households, but wasn't mentioned on the official voter ballot.

Board Director Michael DeBell served on the committee that helped draft the list of schools for the program. He said the plan grew out of intention to do more for Sealth High, but was troubled at what happened after that.

"We didn't do a good job at bringing the community along with this project," he said.

Sundquist said it would be difficult to accept a more than $20 million loss of buying power if the board keeps the schools separate, so he's "leaning toward option two."

"I actually feel this can be done from an academic point of view and a safety point of view," he said at a community forum held last Tuesday evening and organized by the Westwood Neighborhood Council.

Among the panel of guests was Donald Felder, vice president of the Black Child Development Institute. He said that a shared campus could be beneficial but that community buy-in and support is crucial.

Without that foundation, "you are starting behind ground zero," said Felder, who also serves as an education specialist for Casey Family Programs.

Sealth staff has voted three times against co-location, while Denny's staff seems to largely support it.

Some parents and staff have also been concerned about safety problems if the two age groups are mixed.

At the forum and again at the board meeting the next night, the district's chief academic officer Carla Santorno has stated several times the schools would stay separate but have some shared spaces. She stressed that school administration would be in charge of deciding how much or how little interaction there would be between the two schools.

"I believe we do have to have committed people willing to look at the opportunities (of a co-located campus)," Santorno said.

Sundquist and DeBell favored keeping a full-time police officer on staff at the campus.

"I think it would offer a great deal of reassurance to the community," DeBell said.

DeBell noted that adding money to the Sealth project is closer to what the board intended the school to get in the first place, before the project was scaled back due to construction cost escalation. The district had planned for a 3 to 6 percent increase, but it will be closer to 10 percent.

Sundquist was troubled that some of the district's answers provided to questions posed by the community at a recent public meeting weren't completely factual or were biased toward the preferred option.

Santorno has said the superintendent plans to create and publish publicly a new protocol for community engagement so there's a regular process that can be counted on. Sundquist said he's looking forward to seeing that plan.

"I don't know the details yet, but it's got to be better than what we have," he said.

Review the district's responses to questions and concerns at http://www.seattleschools.org/area/bex/response_020408.htm.

Rebekah Schilperoort can be reached at 783-1244 or rebekahs@robinsonnews.com.