NORTH CREEK — Construction is under way on the Northshore School District’s fourth high school, which is expected to be ready for students by fall 2017.
The $130 million facility is being built on 61 acres off 35th Avenue, between 188th and 192nd streets southeast. The school board recently decided on a name: North Creek High School.
The name was selected through community submissions and a survey, then confirmed by the board. North Creek won out over Tambark and Pacific Crest in the final three options. The school site is located in the North Creek area of Bothell, and the first one-room schoolhouse in the area was the North Creek School, which operated from about 1887 to 1900.
The district has come a long way from one-room schoolhouses. The new 250,000-square-foot facility is designed to hold 1,600 students, lightening the load on Bothell, Woodinville and Inglemoor high schools. The district anticipates an initial enrollment of up to 1,200 freshmen, sophomores and juniors during the 2017-18 academic year, Superintendent Larry Francois said. Those juniors will become the school’s first senior class the next year, graduating in spring 2019.
The new high school is one piece of a three-part district plan to handle a growing student population, particularly on the north part of the district, Francois said. The other two pieces are changing the break-up of grade levels across the schools and adjusting boundaries within the district.
Currently, Northshore elementary schools are for kindergarten through sixth grade, junior high is for seventh to ninth grade and high school is for 10th through 12th grade. The new configuration will stop at fifth grade in elementary school and eighth grade in middle school, leaving the high school with ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th graders.
The boundaries for each school will be adjusted to take into account the new high school and the grade reconfiguration, Francois said. Some teachers will be assigned to different schools.
“We will be working through all of these issues over the next three years in advance of opening North Creek High School,” Francois said.
The grade level and boundary changes are scheduled to take effect when the new school opens.
Construction of North Creek High School is funded by a $177.5 million general obligation bond. The bond also is paying to finish a remodel of Woodinville High School and for other smaller projects across the district. A new Woodinville High School gym and an arts, technology and special education building are on schedule to be finished in 2017.
Voters approved the bond in February with 15,941 yes votes — 69 percent — out of 22,996 ballots cast within the district, which spans part of Snohomish and King counties. Bothell, Woodinville and Kenmore fall within the district’s boundaries.
The Northshore School District currently has more than 20,000 students at its 20 elementary schools, six junior high schools and three high schools.
A task force made up of parents, neighbors, teachers, support staff and administrators will continue meeting this year to plan for 2017 and beyond. The district also hopes to gather opinions from the community, Francois said. A series of open houses are planned in early 2015.
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.
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