Lake Stevens School Board to vote on district boundaries

Published 1:30 am Saturday, January 14, 2017

LAKE STEVENS — Nearly 800 students here are expected to change elementary schools this fall.

New school boundaries have been proposed in preparation for opening a seventh elementary in the Lake Stevens School District. Out of 3,620 kindergarten through fourth-grade students, 788 would go to a different school than the one they currently attend, according to the proposal.

Of those students, 530 are headed to Stevens Creek Elementary, which is expected to open in the middle of next school year. They would come from Hillcrest, Sunnycrest and Highland elementaries.

At least a handful of students are expected to be moved to each of the district’s six existing elementaries, as well. Some students are set to go from Hillcrest to Skyline, from Mt. Pilchuck to Sunnycrest and Highland, from Glenwood to Mt. Pilchuck and Skyline, from Skyline to Hillcrest and from Highland to Hillcrest and Sunnycrest.

“One of the goals of the committee was to really minimize the impact on students,” district spokeswoman Jayme Taylor said. “Obviously, we have to fill the new school. Some of the students are moving from an existing school to an existing school, but we’ve done that as little as possible.”

With the new school, Lake Stevens elementaries are expected to have less than 550 students each, and most would have closer to 400. For schools that have been overcrowded for years, it’s a big change.

The boundaries have not yet been made final. They were presented to the Lake Stevens School Board on Wednesday. The board plans to vote on them during its Jan. 25 meeting at Hillcrest Elementary. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. and is open to the public.

Parents can look over the proposed boundaries by going online to lkstevens.wednet.edu, or stopping by the district office at 12309 22nd St NE. Comments will be shared with the board before the meeting, Taylor said.

Boundary changes can be difficult for families. Students and parents have built relationships at their current school, and there’s no guarantee friends will end up at the same school after the change. District staff will work to make students feel welcome in their new schools, Superintendent Amy Beth Cook said in a news release.

“Oftentimes we find that students are much more adaptable to situations like this than adults,” she said.

A committee of staff, parents and volunteers came up with the boundary suggestions. The group met seven times in the fall. Members went over enrollment, building capacities and expected growth in the area.

After the elementary boundaries are made final, the committee plans to look at middle school boundaries. When there were six elementary schools, they could be divided up equally to funnel students into North Lake and Lake Stevens middle schools. With an uneven number of elementaries, boundaries for the middle schools need to be reviewed.

The district plans to send more information this winter to families with students who would change schools. People with concerns can call 425-335-1500.

Students who will be going to Stevens Creek would be in classrooms at existing elementaries for the first half of the 2017-18 school year. Mid-year transitions are not ideal, the district said, but one has been done before, when Sunnycrest Elementary was overhauled.

The school board has not yet decided how it will handle in-district variances, which permit students to go to a Lake Stevens school other than the one designated by boundaries.

Another remaining question is whether any fifth-graders will change schools. It could be disruptive to have them move to a new school for only a few months before going on to middle school, Taylor said.

The new elementary school is part of a $116 million bond measure passed by voters in February 2016.

Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.