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| Lake Washington School District Learning Areas |
Elementary and secondary schools can be accommodated on the parcel. One of the finest amenities, in my opinion, is it's proximity to nature preserves, trails and parks. It abuts the riparian habitat of Evans Creek while keeping within the Urban Growth Boundary. Thousands of housing units may be built south of the property; students can walk to school. The land is adjacent to a dynamic commercial district. The regional amenities of light rail, Marymoor Park and trails are not far-off.
The purchase price is $40,000,000. Funding sources are: the Rose Hill property sale ($18,000,000,) April 2016 bond project balance ($20,000.000,) and the Capital Levy. The bond and levy received construction assistance funds.
Superintendent Barbara Posthumous spent plenty of time talking about the growth within our region,
pressuring the District. Some of the news is alarming: King County is the fourth largest county in the country by population growth; LWSD is the fastest growing District in King county. LWSD enrollment has grown by 31% (7,337 students) since 2008 and is expecting continued growth of 11% for the next ten years, bringing in an additional 3,450 students. The majority of the district’s schools are at or over capacity, and continued population growth will only exacerbate this.
Totem Lake is projected to have 3,600 new housing units within ten years; with downtown Kirkland and Rose Hill 1900 new units. The City of Redmond city center and Marymoor Village are projected to have 3200 new units. Sammamish projects 1274 units in the next ten years. Redmond has the largest growth of any city in the District.
Twenty-nine of 41 schools are at or over capacity at this time. LWSD is the second largest District in the State.
Ongoing business growth on the Eastside is rapid: Google plans to add up to 1 million square feet of office space in Kirkland. Amazon is bringing 300-600 engineers to Redmond. A major Facebook business unit is moving onto Willows Road; the large Proctor housing development will service them.
--Reported by Bob Yoder, 4/22/2021
I want to thank Barbara Posthumous, Associate Superintendent of Business and Support for her excellent presentation on the land purchase. Ms. Posthumous is also the C.F.O. of the District. Barbara gave her presentation during the District Business Meeting of April 19th.
With LWEA - LWSD's teachers union, fighting to keep schools closed this school year, many in the community have dropped their support for teachers, future bonds and levys. Historically, the district has a difficult time in good days to get enough votes from tax payers, so the "students-last" stunt pulled by the LWEA to prevent schools from opening earlier than ordered by Inslee will make the passage of bonds and levys even harder.
ReplyDeleteKnowing this, people with children may not want to move to the district.