Spokane leaders outline “Together Spokane” schools-and-parks partnership, highlight 200-plus projects and shared funding plan

Spokane parks and Spokane Public Schools officials on Monday described a new joint initiative, “Together Spokane,” that pairs a parks levy and a school bond to fund more than 200 projects across the city and expand maintenance, safety and programming at neighborhood parks and schools.

At a District 3 town hall at the West Central Community Center, Garrett Jones, director of Parks and Recreation, and Dr. Adam Swinyard of Spokane Public Schools presented details of the study that shaped the proposal and highlighted projects in District 3, including a combined Madison School and recreation center, Meadow Glen Park, expanded lit all‑weather fields, an indoor tennis center at Shadle Park and a plan to invest in an existing indoor pool at Spokane Community College.

The authors of the study say the partnership would stretch levy and bond dollars by sharing facilities and private contributions. "When you look now together, we see what you call the partnership projects — additional 30 projects system wide," Jones said. "Now what we're able to do is provide over 200 projects system wide, every park, every neighborhood, every school for what was originally planned for the park's levy at that 29¢ per thousand." Swinyard added, "We serve 30,000 kids. We do that in those 58 schools that encompass over 5,000,000 square feet across 600 acres. So we are one of the largest school districts in the state."

Why it matters: officials said combining school bond…