Growth Has Everett School District Looking At Elementary School Boundary Changes

A growing population in the south end of the Everett School District is causing administrators to look at expanding the number of students attending Silver Lake Elementary school in south Everett. Today the district announced a series of meetings for parents to see the proposed changes. Here’s an overview provided by Everett Schools…

Woodside Elementary, which is located in the Mays Pond area north of Bothell,has a capacity for 540 students from kindergarten through fifth grade. Today the 34 year old school and its 10 portable classrooms are the learning home for more than 800 students. The district has a proposal to help ease Woodside’s congestion until more permanent elementary classroom space can be added in the region. This proposal is for approximately 125-150 students now in the very northern portion of the Woodside attendance area to attend Silver Lake Elementary instead. These are students living the Heatherwood, Reserve and Hawthorne apartments, Nature’s Landing condominiums and the Woodside Walk neighborhood. To better understand this proposal, the Silver Lake PTA is scheduling a portion of its 7 p.m. meeting for this topic on Thursday, Feb. 26.

“The families slated to join the Silver Lake community are physically closer to Silver Lake now than they are to Woodside,” notes Executive Director of Facilities and Operations Mike Gunn. “The bus ride they will have next fall will cover less distance than the one they now travel to reach Woodside.”

On Friday, March 6, the district will meet with families of students scheduled to move next fall. The meeting is an open house drop in session from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Heatherwood Apartment complex. “We are using our calling system to reach families in that area so they have a chance to check out the maps, learn more about Silver Lake, trace their school bus routes for next year and make sure we’ve thought through the details of this transition proposal,” said Gunn.

On Monday, March 9, at Henry M. Jackson High School, from 7-8 p.m. families from Silver Lake and Woodside are invited to another opportunity to help the district be aware of logistics necessary for boundary changes starting next fall.

“This is not a long-term solution to overcrowding,” explained Gunn. “It does not make the pain of rapid growth go away; it more equitably distributes the pain of enrollment growth.”

In February and April of 2014, the district’s capital bond proposal included enough classroom space to build a new elementary school, additions to some elementary schools and high school classroom space. It also included modernization and safety upgrades throughout the district. “Twice in 2014 the majority of voters said ‘yes’ to that bond proposal,” Gunn emphasizes. “However, a 58 percent ‘yes’ vote does not meet the 60 percent super-majority required to build school classroom space.” He added, “The board has talked about when to put another bond proposal before voters. They are putting a lot of time and care into that conversation before making any future bond decision. For the time being at least, we are making interim adjustments to ease overcrowding.”