Snoqualmie council lends weight to citizens' school redistrict proposal

Members of the Snoqualmie City Council and Mayor Matt Larson have lent their weight to a push by two Snoqualmie women to reshape director boundaries in the Snoqualmie Valley School District. Residents Carolyn Simpson and Laurie Gibbs presented their concerns to the council at its Monday, April 25, regular meeting.

With the district poised to revise its school director districts—the geographical areas of the Valley that define where school board members reside—in the wake of the 2010 census, Simpson and Gibbs are pushing for direct representation of Snoqualmie.

Of the five current board members, three reside in the North Bend area and two live in the Fall City/Lake Alice area, the women said.

“There’s never really been a true Snoqualmie seat,” Gibbs said. “It’s always been merged with portions of Lake Alice and Fall City.”

Snoqualmie Valley School District contracted with Sammamish Data Systems to prepare a new realignment, and will hold a public hearing on the plan at 6:45 p.m. Thursday, April 28, at the district board room, 8001 Silva Ave., Snoqualmie.

Gibbs and Simpson say the consultant’s plan breaks Snoqualmie up into pieces to be divided among existing directors. They want a different set of boundaries, roughly divided by population, with two seats for Snoqualmie, two for North Bend and one for Fall City. The women planned to send their proposal to the district on Tuesday, and to speak at Thursday’s meeting.

Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson, who signed a letter in support of the women’s proposal, agreed, questioning whether the consultant’s redrawn boundaries are appropriate.

“We didn’t see any connection between Wilderness Rim and Snoqualmie Ridge, Phase 2,” Larson said, speaking about one proposed director district.

School board members represent the entire school district and are voted on by all registered voters. Each board position is elected by voters from the entire school district for a four-year term.

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