LAKE STEVENS – The Lake Stevens School Board may decide in September whether to put a bond measure on the ballot early in 2005 to build a new junior high school that could later be expanded into a high school.
The board recently got its first glimpse of preliminary sketches of what the new campus might look like. It will meet again at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at district headquarters to further discuss options for a school construction bond proposal.
The school for eighth- and ninth-grade students would be built in the south end of the district near Hewitt Avenue and 91st Avenue SE. The early architectural drawings envision a two-story building with wings.
The campus would include “pods of classrooms” aimed at serving 200 students each, said Arlene Hulten, a school district spokeswoman.
“We are trying to base the design on what we want to do instructionally,” said Mari Taylor, the school board’s president.
The district wants to make a large campus seem smaller by breaking students into “houses” that offer more personal instruction.
A new junior high would relieve overcrowding at Lake Stevens High School, which now serves grades nine through 12, and at the district’s two middle schools, which serve grades six through eight.
Even if voters approve the measure early next year, the soonest the school could open would be 2007.
Still to be ironed out is when to put the measure on the ballot and how much to ask voters to consider.
Pointing out overcrowding at Lake Stevens High School, Taylor predicts the bond will be on the ballot sooner than later.
“There is just too much at stake to delay it any longer,” she said.
The district appointed a volunteer committee two years ago to come up with options for new buildings that could handle projected enrollment growth. The junior high package was one of four options the committee presented.
The bond measure also may include money for field improvements, updating the cafeteria at the high school and modernization at Sunnycrest, Mount Pilchuck and Hillcrest elementary schools.
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