BOTHELL – Things are reaching a breaking point for Fernwood Elementary School.
Six portable classrooms offer a clue, though the real signs are more subtle.
It’s seen in photos of the school’s kindergartners, faces you won’t see on campus because there hasn’t been room for them for two years. Instead, they attend Canyon Creek Elementary School.
It’s seen in the school’s checkbook, where costs for assemblies double because they must be held in shifts for lack of a space that would fit all 614 first- through sixth-graders.
And it’s seen at the end of the day, where the line of children waiting to board the bus stretches 200 feet and as many as four adults direct parents’ vehicles to keep the traffic from backing up onto the road.
“We’ve been able to accommodate quite a bit,” Principal Anne Bayard said. “Until this year we’ve been able to handle it.”
A booming housing market in Snohomish County and shifting neighborhoods in King County are forcing the 20,000-student Northshore School District, which straddles both, to rethink who goes where.
It joins other local schools in the challenging task of redrawing school attendance boundaries, a necessary but often contentious process.
Arlington School District is going through the same “rebalancing” process with its elementary schools. Districts in Everett, Marysville and Snohomish also are redrawing boundaries as they prepare to open new schools during the next four years.
Schools look at housing developments, birthrates and other data to make predictions about enrollment patterns.
The work can start years in advance to inform parents early on and ease the transition for what can be a fiercely loyal contingent.
Elementary school parents in particular tend to be attached to their child’s neighborhood school and value the relationships with teachers and peers formed there, school leaders say.
Arlington School District, for example, proposed changes to elementary school boundaries that drew more than 100 angry parents to an informational session in March.
The district is starting over with an advisory committee that includes several parents.
Like many schools, Northshore administrators are pointing to the facts in building their case for redrawing lines.
Fernwood Elementary School, near the Thrashers Corner neighborhood in south Snohomish County, tops the list. By 2010, the district estimates that, left untouched, the school would have 240 more kids than available seats.
Meanwhile, Hollywood Hill Elementary School outside Woodinville will have a 202-seat surplus. That’s the largest gap among the district’s seven southeast schools in King County, none of which is projected to grow.
“It’s become crystal clear that unless we do something, the situation is going to get worse. It’s not going to solve itself,” said Susan Stoltzfus, a district spokeswoman who serves on an advisory group.
A recommendation will be made to the school board by September. The new map would take effect a year later.
Parents gathering to collect their children at Fernwood on a recent school day were understanding but cautious.
“We love the community. The teachers are great. It’s a good school,” said Ellen Merrill, whose two children attend Fernwood on a waiver from another school, an arrangement that could be nixed by changes. “I’m anxious to hear what’s going to happen.”
Robin Krohn said her family moved to the area from Kirkland for “more house for the dollars.”
Her second-grade daughter only started at Fernwood in January, so she’s waiting and watching, as well. “I’d hate to uproot her again,” Krohn said.
As with most school boundary shifts, the changes will affect a minority of families – about 10 percent of the district’s 10,000 elementary-age students.
Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.
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