Home-school parents oppose sharing campus in Edmonds

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, January 28, 2007

LYNNWOOD – The Edmonds School Board has approved plans to relocate alternative high school students for two years to the same campus as the district’s Home School Resource Center.

The board voted last week to allow the move despite a lawsuit filed by a home-school couple trying to block the plan.

The school district wants to move Scriber Lake High School students and students from a companion Options program to the former Woodway High School site, 23200 100th Ave. W, Edmonds, while a permanent campus is being built.

Scriber is an alternative school with more than 200 students. Within Scriber is the district’s Options program for students needing a highly structured, closely supervised setting.

“Students at Options have a higher concentration of behavior problems than a regular (high school) or the (Scriber) program, but the problems are not different or more extreme,” according to a district memo.

That idea of moving Scriber and Options hasn’t set well with some home-school families. In November, more than 30 home-school parents, children and supporters told the school board they either opposed the move or were concerned about the safety of their children if the move was allowed.

Other schools have used the former Woodway High site as a temporary campus during construction projects.

“We have been using it for a transition site for more than a decade,” said Ellen Kahan, an assistant superintendent in the Edmonds district.

The district has tried to address concerns of home-school parents while still meeting the educational needs of the Scriber students, Kahan said.

Each school will have its own part of the campus with separate libraries, classrooms, gym space, parking and cafeterias. There will also be an Edmonds Police Department school resource officer on campus funded by the school district.

In two years, Scriber and Options would move to their permanent home at what is now school district headquarters, 20420 68th Ave. W. District offices and other operations will be relocated to the Scriber Lake site, 20425 52nd Ave. W.

Paul Veillon, who has children in the home-school program, filed a lawsuit in October seeking an injunction to stop the move of Scriber and Options students. The lawsuit is filed in Snohomish County Superior Court.

In court papers, he points to statistics documenting discipline issues in the two programs and maintains the district made its decision “without adequate consideration of the student learning environment” at the Home School Resource Center.

No court date has been set.

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.