LYNNWOOD — Rainbow-colored chalk handprints lined the half-century-old, deteriorating elementary school on Tuesday, along with the message “Goodbye Oak Heights.”
This week, the Edmonds School District broke ground on Oak Heights Elementary School’s $65 million replacement, parting ways with a school that students and teachers have known since 1967.
Children run past a wall of chalk handprints while saying goodbye to their school on Tuesday, June 25, 2024, in Lynnwood, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
About a dozen students lent a hand at Tuesday’s groundbreaking, while more than 100 students, families, former staff and others watched.
Wearing hard hats and high-visibility vests that hung down to their knees, the students plunged their golden shovels into the ground, tossing dirt to the side.
The students gave Integrus Architecture, the Seattle-based contractor leading the project, a head start on their work with the small pits they left in the lot on Tuesday.
Dylan Garduque, 6, listens to Edmonds School Board President Nancy Katims speaks at the Oak Heights Elementary groundbreaking on Tuesday, June 25, 2024, in Lynnwood, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
With construction expected to wrap up by the start of the 2026-27 school year, most of Oak Heights’ current students will get a chance to learn in the new building before they head to middle school.
The new building at 15500 18th Ave. W in Lynnwood will have space for 640 students. Currently, Oak Heights enrolls 541 students.
The school’s replacement was made possible by a construction bond voters approved in February. The district plans to spend the $594 million in bond money on replacing and reopening three elementary schools and two middle schools over the next five years.
A rendering of the new Oak Heights Elementary School. (Rendering provided by Edmonds School District)
Earlier this month, the school district approved a contractor’s $200 million bid to rebuild College Place elementary and middle schools. Construction on those schools is slated to begin in 2026.
Bonds require 60% of voter approval, rather than just a simple majority. More than 65% approved the Edmonds School District bond proposal.
Principal Jessica Asp is eager for the new Oak Heights. Since becoming principal in 2019, Asp has seen the worst of the aging building’s problems.
Since the plumbing is so old, heavy rain can easily flood the kindergarten bathrooms with sewage, she said. In some places, tree roots are growing into the pipes.
Across the buildings, paint chips off the walls and tiles break under students’ feet.
“It’s beyond repair,” Asp said Wednesday.
Overcrowding led the district to post eight portable classrooms in yards to make more space. Those classrooms don’t include the extra bathrooms required with more students, Asp said.
Kids can’t learn to the best of their potential in a “decrepit and old” building, Asp said. She thinks it’s hard for students and staff to feel optimistic and hopeful when spending so much time in that kind of environment.
“Kids pick up on that,” she said. “So when you go in an environment that is elevated and lifted and light and vibrant, you feel that.”
The school district’s plan for the new Oak Heights will nearly double the current square footage across three buildings. Two buildings will hold classrooms and connect with a bridge. The third building will serve as a hub for administration, the library, the gym and the commons.
Separating the buildings allows for green spaces and recreational areas to run through the entire campus.
“A lot of our kids live in those five-story apartments all day and they don’t go outside,” Asp said. “So when they are at school, they can have outdoor education within their campus.”
A side-by-side comparison of the current and future Oak Heights Elementary School. (Rendering provided by Edmonds School District)
Oak Heights sits north of Lynnwood in unincorporated Snohomish County. Prioritizing green spaces will serve both the students and the community at large.
Asp expects the old building to get demolished by the fall.
In the meantime, Oak Heights students will continue their learning at the former Alderwood Middle School. The empty middle school is also set to be replaced, with plans to reopen in 2028.
Asp will treasure the memories she made at the old building, but she is ready for a change.
“For me, it’s just like, ‘Oh my God, everything is broken down and smelly,’” she said.
The new school will come with security upgrades and air conditioning that the old building lacks. The new building will “easily” be usable for more than 50 years, Asp said.
The students are excited and nervous for the change.
When teachers show the design photos of the new school to students, they often ask, “Is that real?” Asp said.
“They get really attached to places,” Asp said. “There were a lot of tears about missing this place.”
Jenelle Baumbach: 360-352-8623; jenelle.baumbach@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @jenelleclar.
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