MUKILTEO — When it came time to build a new school for young students, the Mukilteo School District decided to try something different — a whole school just for kindergartners.
It will be able to accommodate up to 550 students. But the building is being designed in ways to put students into smaller groups. “We didn’t want kids to feel overwhelmed by the size,” school district spokesman Andy Muntz said.
The building’s 24 classrooms will be divided among two floors and two wings, each with a group of six classrooms. There are four separate areas to eat lunch.
“They’re not going to be thrown into a lunchroom with 550 kindergartners,” he said.
There will be separate play areas for each of the four groups of classrooms.
Work on the $36.8 million project is expected to begin in May. The school will be on the campus of Fairmount Elementary School on Beverly Park Road. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2017.
Having a school just built for kindergartners “is a fairly unique idea,” said Todd Ferking, with DLR Group, the Seattle architectural firm designing the school. “I can’t think of a precedent exactly like this.”
It’s far more common for schools to have a building for both kindergartners and preschool students, he said. The Mukilteo School District decided to go with a kindergarten-only building because the special developmental needs of that age group, he said.
“Kindergarten today has lost a lot of joy,” Ferking said. “That was one of our efforts, to bring joy back into that age group” while at school.
Plans for a kindergarten-only building began in the fall of 2011. The district wanted to offer all-day kindergarten to students, but didn’t have the classroom space to do so. “That’s what spurred us to make a center for just kindergarten,” Muntz said. The project was part of a bond issue approved by voters in 2014.
A 14-member advisory committee made recommendations on how the building could be designed to accommodate kindergarten students. One of its members was Heather Craggs, who had taught kindergarten for 21 years.
“We looked at how we can break it down for that 5-year-old who’s new to school,” she said. “This building is dedicated to that little child, making it super colorful and inviting.”
The district will continue with half-day kindergarten for all its students until the new building opens.
Construction of a second school, Lake Stickney Elementary School, also was included in the projects paid for with the 2014 bond issue. The school, which cost $33.5 million, is scheduled to open in the fall.
It is being constructed on the site of the former Lake Stickney Elementary School, which was built in 1964. It was later converted into space for school district offices and training rooms. It will have 30 classrooms, an art/technology classroom, a music room, a gym, a library and offices for specialists.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
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