Everett Public Schools buys land for new elementary school
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 11, 2026
EVERETT — The Everett Public Schools Board of Directors voted Tuesday to approve a $2.5 million purchase of land in south Snohomish County needed to build the district’s 19th elementary school.
The new elementary school is the centerpiece of the district’s recently approved bond totaling nearly $400 million — a funding package that will help reduce crowding in classrooms across the district, which serves about 20,000 students. The bond will also pay for a replacement of Lowell Elementary School, 12 new permanent elementary classrooms districtwide and a replacement of a building at Cascade High School, among many other projects.
“This addition of a new elementary school will help the district address overcrowding and reduce the number of learning cottages, AKA portable classrooms, at the elementary level,” district Superintendent Ian Saltzman said at Tuesday’s meeting.
The district will purchase three plots of land, for a total of $2.5 million, that are adjacent to property already owned by Everett Public Schools. The property is located along Strumme Road in unincorporated Snohomish County — east of the city of Mill Creek — about a mile and a half away from Forest View Elementary School.
In an email, district spokesperson Harmony Weinberg said Everett Public Schools has now acquired the land necessary to build the new elementary school, though it may choose to buy additional properties should they become available.
The school is tentatively set to open in August 2029, Weinberg wrote, though that is an early estimate and is subject to change.
The new elementary school’s name will be decided by the school board, which will receive recommendations from an advisory committee, per district policy.
The school is expected to cost $97.7 million.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
