Changes to rebalance growing enrollment
Redmond, Wash. – Lake Washington School District is facing an immediate need to house its growing enrollment. That enrollment has increased close to 2,000 students over the last three years to 26,708. A process to change neighborhood school boundaries began in September. It concluded last night as the district’s Board of Directors voted unanimously to accept a set of recommendations for boundary changes.
The changes enable the district to most efficiently use current school buildings to house the growing enrollment.
“We have this issue because we have more and more students coming to our schools,” noted Jackie Pendergrass, president of the district’s Board of Directors. “They deserve to have a place to be educated.” Read More >>
The LWSD boundary committee completed a comprehensive study and analysis process that included multiple opportunities for parent input. They presented their recommendation to Superintendent Traci Pierce. Dr. Pierce presented her final recommendation to the district’s Board of Directors at the Monday, January 26, Board Meeting. The board unanimously voted to accept the recommendation as presented.
“We appreciate the attention and engagement of our parents throughout the process,” noted Dr. Pierce. “Changing attendance boundaries is a difficult process from everyone’s perspective. However, we have a responsibility to ensure that we have classrooms for students. We are committed to helping to transition families and students who will be attending new schools in the 2015-16 school year.”
The LWSD boundary committee completed a comprehensive study and analysis process that included multiple opportunities for parent input. They presented their recommendation to Superintendent Traci Pierce. Dr. Pierce presented her final recommendation to the district’s Board of Directors at the Monday, January 26, Board Meeting. The board unanimously voted to accept the recommendation as presented.
“We appreciate the attention and engagement of our parents throughout the process,” noted Dr. Pierce. “Changing attendance boundaries is a difficult process from everyone’s perspective. However, we have a responsibility to ensure that we have classrooms for students. We are committed to helping to transition families and students who will be attending new schools in the 2015-16 school year.”
The final boundary changes are posted on the district boundary web page. A total of 801 current students are expected to change schools, all currently in elementary schools.
Boundary changes approved by the board will go into effect next fall.
The district is also reviewing its facilities needs in the long term. A Long-Term Facilities Planning Task Force has already begun work to develop strategies and recommendations to house students in 2018-19 and beyond.
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About Lake Washington: Lake Washington School District is a high-performing public school district serving Kirkland, Redmond, and Sammamish, Washington. It is the sixth largest district in the state of Washington, with over 26,000 students in 51 schools.
We have this issue because the district wants to build Taj Mahal's and the voters showed THREE times they won't pay for that.
ReplyDeleteClassrooms were added to Redmond High School several years ago at the price of $1,000,000. That cost is absolutely ridiculous but LWSD doesn't think so which is why they presented three bonds which did not pass.
I agree all students deserve a place to be educated. But should they all continue to be sent to the same crowded schools in high growth areas? The district doesn't seem to have a strong case for adding expensive portables rather than temporarily using adjacent space at the middle schools. From what the district said at the meeting, I understand peer groups and friendships are important ... but so is a quality learning environment that provides more opportunities than it takes away. Not sure why the board seems so closed off to finding innovative, flexible solutions before the situation worsens. If I had a kid at Evergreen, I'd be concerned too.
ReplyDeleteClassrooms at Redmond High were added to the school at the cost of $1,000,000 for EACH room!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe School Board patted themselves on the back for a transparent & inclusive of feedback process right after hearing unanimous voices from across the district's learning communities that parents felt misled, information was withheld, updates weren't published & even advertised meeting time was incorrect. Add to that the board not differentiating between original building capacity & portables inflating capacity but at expense of quality student experience & you end up with people feeling the Board's time line was more important than finding a good solution.
ReplyDeleteThe Board had an opportunity to reboundary to evenly share the overcrowding throughout the district, but instead, they stuffed more kids into overflowing Evergreen Middle while protecting underenrolled Finn Hill & Rose Hill. They'll spend millions on portable bathrooms, portables classrooms & teacher planning space at EMS while classrooms sit empty nearby. Then scratch their heads when the next bond fails. Wise use of existing resources? FAIL. Trust them to get bond passed? NO
ReplyDeleteI think Traci said they were installing 30 portables as part of the reboundary process? Can that be true? Where do they get the money for these portables? They are not cheap. And if a bond is passed and many of the portables aren't needed, what do they do with them, if anything? Who would buy them back? Or will they just sit there on school property taking up usable space?
ReplyDeleteYes, Bob, the portables do remain in place indefinitely as we've seen with the 10 at Rosa Parks. It's simply too costly to relocate them, so they become a permanent and unwelcome "addition" to the school ... wasting valuable funds at schools set to be renovated as well as much-needed space at fields/playgrounds at these highly populated schools.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention the major student security issues of having portables away from the main building near parking lots and park and rides, sitting unprotected. Teachers complain of playground and field noise from school perimeters detracting from classroom learning in portables as well. Studies have also indicated that air quality is of concern to those housed in portables, with indoor pollution from materials and poor circulation. Far from a win-win for anyone!
The district can do better, and the public demands it now. Limit excessive portable use by taking advantage of available, nearby permanent classrooms. Be more strategic in locating new and existing choice schools. Work with the county to curb growth. Other solutions exist, if the district is willing to be flexible and innovative ... and do the hard work, without resorting to an artificial timeline.
http://www.lwsd.org/News/News-and-Announcements/Pages/LWSD-continues-to-grow-develops-short-term-housing-plan.aspx
ReplyDelete28 classrooms in portables are to be added. But each portable can have more than 1 classroom, so the number of structures will likely be smaller.
I know that this is an older post, but I wanted to add this comment for posterity. I was recently reviewing the Eastside Journal headline archives online (thanks to our local historical society) and came across this applicable gem from the 3/10/1966 issue:
ReplyDelete"LW Seeks Emergency Building Funds; To Avert Schools' Crisis"
So it seems, the more things change, the more they stay the same!
[this comment can be combined with my previous one - the topic is the same]
ReplyDeleteHere's an even earlier headline from the 10/27/1955 edition of The Eastside Journal:
"Order Plans for Portables To Aid Redmond School"
This begs the question - since we now have all of these 6-figure-salary people working for the LWSD, what value are they providing to us taxpayers?