Shoreline School District officials may not have a choice if the Aldercrest Annex site they own is picked as a misdemeanant jail site.
“(Eminent domain) is an option but we prefer not to use eminent domain if at all possible,” said Scott MacColl, intergovernmental relations manager for the city of Shoreline. “We would do everything we could to negotiate.”
(Shoreline is a member of North/East Cities (NEC), the municipal jail planning group running the jail selection process. Whichever city in the group is chosen for the jail would be tasked with securing the land for the jail.)
School officials say they don’t want a jail on the property.
“We have a number of concerns,” said Craig Degginger, spokesperson for the district. “This wasn’t our idea — we’re upset about it.”
School officials didn’t say definitively they would not sell the site as a jail.
When asked, Degginger said he couldn’t predict what the Shoreline School Board would do. The board would have to vote on the sale.
“From my experience the board is not in favor of selling the property for a jail,” said Debi Ehrlichman, board president. “It’s hard for me to imagine the school board would chose to sell it as a jail.”
They’d much rather see the property used for other things, like housing or businesses, she said.
Board members’ concerns are the same as district officials’ concerns, Ehrlichman said.
First, the jail site is across the street from the Aldercrest Learning Center, where school programs rent space from the district. The Learning Center is home to the Discovery School, which serves special needs students, and the Living Wisdom School, a private school.
“Our concern is how can you site a jail next to a school?” Degginger said.
Second, the district would be responsible for educating jail inmates under the age of 21, a costly responsibility, Degginger said.
Third, the site is in a residential area, while the other five sites are not, he said.
Fourth, the process of choosing a jail site could take a year to 18 months as environmental studies are done. That means the district can’t sell the property in the meantime, a real disadvantage, Degginger said.
Interest from the property’s sale could be used for curriculum materials, which would be a help to the district’s tight budget.
Also, while the jail process goes on, the district has to keep the site maintained, which costs money, Degginer said.
“It’s frustrating to have to sit on (the property) while the process unfolds,” Ehrlichman said.
Officials were never consulted or informed by anyone involved in the jail site selection process, including the city of Shoreline, that their property was being considered, school officials say.
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