By Susan Wilkins
Remember that the district gave the dire warning that if voters didn't approve the 2011 levy to build additions at Redmond High School and Eastlake High School that students would end up in portables? It turned out that all along the construction plans for the RHS Addition included site preparation for 10 portables next to the bus lanes. In Sept 2012, RHS opened with the new addition and 2 portables already on site.
Portables are ugly and they isolate students from the rest of the school. The portables at RHS take up a lot of space on what was once a nice field. The site prep alone for the 10 RHS portables cost more than a million dollars - and then there was the cost of each portable.
The district currently has 140 portables. It projects 4000 new students in the next 10 years. They are asking voters to approve the 2014 Bond Measure to add space for the 4000 new students. And then they tell us that they're adding portables because they don't want to "over build" and end up with too much space! Do they listen to themselves talk?
Both Redmond High School and Redmond Middle School were at capacity for 2012-2013 with more overcrowding expected when classes start this fall. Halls are crowded. Lunchroom, library and restroom facilities are inadequate - and more students will end up in portables. It's too bad since taxpayers have spent a lot of money over the past 15 years on new buildings all over the district. Students deserve better than portables.
Here's an idea - the Washington Cathedral Site at the corner of NE 124th Street and Redmond-Woodinville Road is for sale. It includes a 50,000 square foot building on 15.5 acres for $19,500,000. The district normally spends $60 million on a new middle school - built on land that the district already owns. The Washington Cathedral Site includes the building and the land. The 6-Year Capital Facilities Plan shows that the district is budgeting $98,000,000 of the upcoming bond measure for property acquisition and construction of a new middle school that would be ready in 2018. The Washington Cathedral Site could be used as a new middle school. Or it could be used as a K-8 to address overcrowding at Redmond Middle School, Rockwell and Einstein that has been created as the whole North Redmond Corridor is developed into new houses that will add lots of new students. What's great about Washington Cathedral is that it's already built so it could be ready for students in about 2 years. (The district would need to ask Redmond to rezone it for school use and do some remodeling and some traffic mitigation. And if the district provided efficient bussing for all eligible students and started classes at 9:15 AM, traffic would be manageable.) The site is also easily accessible to east Kirkland and the north Avondale area students. How to pay for it? The school district owns 9 acres at the corner NE 122nd Street & 172nd Avenue NE that it could sell for about $9,000,000. (The district is planning to put an elementary school on this site using $34,000,000 from the 2014 bond measure, but do we really need another elementary school half-way between Rockwell and Einstein?) The district also needs to sell 20 acres in the Bear Creek basin and has small surplus parcels around the district that it could sell.
The district needs space for students in Redmond NOW and the Washington Cathedral Site would easily provide classroom space at a bargain price.
It's just an idea.
Remember that the district gave the dire warning that if voters didn't approve the 2011 levy to build additions at Redmond High School and Eastlake High School that students would end up in portables? It turned out that all along the construction plans for the RHS Addition included site preparation for 10 portables next to the bus lanes. In Sept 2012, RHS opened with the new addition and 2 portables already on site.
Portables are ugly and they isolate students from the rest of the school. The portables at RHS take up a lot of space on what was once a nice field. The site prep alone for the 10 RHS portables cost more than a million dollars - and then there was the cost of each portable.
The district currently has 140 portables. It projects 4000 new students in the next 10 years. They are asking voters to approve the 2014 Bond Measure to add space for the 4000 new students. And then they tell us that they're adding portables because they don't want to "over build" and end up with too much space! Do they listen to themselves talk?
Both Redmond High School and Redmond Middle School were at capacity for 2012-2013 with more overcrowding expected when classes start this fall. Halls are crowded. Lunchroom, library and restroom facilities are inadequate - and more students will end up in portables. It's too bad since taxpayers have spent a lot of money over the past 15 years on new buildings all over the district. Students deserve better than portables.
Here's an idea - the Washington Cathedral Site at the corner of NE 124th Street and Redmond-Woodinville Road is for sale. It includes a 50,000 square foot building on 15.5 acres for $19,500,000. The district normally spends $60 million on a new middle school - built on land that the district already owns. The Washington Cathedral Site includes the building and the land. The 6-Year Capital Facilities Plan shows that the district is budgeting $98,000,000 of the upcoming bond measure for property acquisition and construction of a new middle school that would be ready in 2018. The Washington Cathedral Site could be used as a new middle school. Or it could be used as a K-8 to address overcrowding at Redmond Middle School, Rockwell and Einstein that has been created as the whole North Redmond Corridor is developed into new houses that will add lots of new students. What's great about Washington Cathedral is that it's already built so it could be ready for students in about 2 years. (The district would need to ask Redmond to rezone it for school use and do some remodeling and some traffic mitigation. And if the district provided efficient bussing for all eligible students and started classes at 9:15 AM, traffic would be manageable.) The site is also easily accessible to east Kirkland and the north Avondale area students. How to pay for it? The school district owns 9 acres at the corner NE 122nd Street & 172nd Avenue NE that it could sell for about $9,000,000. (The district is planning to put an elementary school on this site using $34,000,000 from the 2014 bond measure, but do we really need another elementary school half-way between Rockwell and Einstein?) The district also needs to sell 20 acres in the Bear Creek basin and has small surplus parcels around the district that it could sell.
The district needs space for students in Redmond NOW and the Washington Cathedral Site would easily provide classroom space at a bargain price.
It's just an idea.
I like the out-of-the-box thinking, and I think we can all agree that the school district should be a little more creative/thoughtful to get out ahead of the overcrowding, and should work more closely with the city in coordinating planning.
ReplyDeleteHowever, we really do need another Elementary School in North Redmond. Einstein is currently very overcrowded has no room for portables. As you noted, the North Redmond corridor is experiencing a resurgence of growth with nowhere for the new students to go. The site at the corner of NE 122nd Street & 172nd Avenue NE is at the center of this area and is perfectly situated to handle the new demand.
There are other issues with the Lake Washington Cathedral site. It's located on a very busy corner but isn't pedestrian accessible or near the growth areas in North Redmond, and the building would need quite a bit of work to adapt it to being a school.
Do we really need another elementary school in North Redmond? Better question: Do we really need another elementary school at the top of Education Hill? We already have three: Mann, Rockwell and Einstein. Or would Redmond be better served by a new elementary school on the valley floor to serve all the students who live there - and there are many. Einstein Elementary gets hundreds of students from along Avondale Road. Rockwell Elementary gets hundreds of students from the condos and apartments near the Bella Botega QFC. Why aren't these students walking to neighborhood schools in the downtown or along Avondale Road where they live? Because the school district never figured out where to put new schools that would serve students living in the downtown areas. Redmond Elementary is the only elementary school for all the students in the downtown area and it is full. The school district should have built additional schools for all the downtown children long ago. Students from southeast Redmond in the Woodbridge neighborhoods have to leave the city and go 3 miles out to Alcott or Dickinson because there is no room for them at Redmond Elementary. (It would have made sense to build a school in southeast Redmond when Woodbridge was developed but instead 9 portables were added to Alcott. This is not wise planning.) Redmond has become a city without adequate school facilities for its students and families. The problem has been slowly festering for about 15 years as Redmond has added more and more housing units without the addition of adequate school facilities. Adding an elementary school in North Redmond isn't really the right solution to address the lack of adequate school facilities for residents in the downtown.
ReplyDeleteThe school district should have seen this coming - literally. Their main office is at Towne Center in downtown Redmond. All they had to do was look out the window to see all the new buildings going up!
Besides purchasing the Washington Cathedral site and turning it into a K-5, K-8, 6-12 or 9-12, the district should look for other school locations in downtown Redmond. (Note that the Washington Cathedral site could be easily accessible by *walking* from the new neighborhoods being built along NE 116th Street.) The Woodbridge area still has medium sized parcels that aren't fully developed. It's unfortunate that the district didn't look to build a school there when Woodbridge was being built and large tracts were more easily available. There are also medium size parcels in the Willows Office Park area. The school district has said that it needs 10 acres to build an elementary school, but on closer investigation, this claim is not valid. The Washington Administrative Code (WAC 392-342-020) recommends 10 acres for elementary schools but it doesn't require 10 acres. (This explains why many elementary schools in Seattle are on only 4-6 acre parcels.)
Another large parcel that needs to be brought to the district's attention is the Keller Farm on Avondale Road. The northwest corner of the farm is zoned high-density. In 2007, the City of Redmond created the Bear Creek Overlay district and designated the 8.8 acres where the fruit stand is located as high density (for a retirement center that was never built.) A requirement of the plan was that the remaining 120 acres of the farm be left as permanently undeveloped. The City of Redmond is looking to purchase the farm for flood control and as an environmental mitigation bank. In a joint partnership, the school district and city could jointly purchase the property with the district getting 10 acres for a school and the city getting the rest for flood storage. The school would be an excellent location for students who live along Avondale Road and on the eastern edge of Redmond in the Woodbridge neighborhood. It's just an idea.