With the entire second grade set to perform, it was impossible for every parent to get a good view of the Cascade View Elementary stage.
So school staff had a simple solution: turn the stage. On Thursday night, March 17, Cascade View’s second grade performed its annual concert along the north wall with a full gymnasium’s worth of onlookers down in front.
At 150 students, “that grade level is our largest,” said Principal Ray Wilson. “Each of their parents comes, plus grandparents, aunts and uncles. It really drove the need to look a different set-up… where they can see their own child.”
Cascade View’s first and second grades are its largest, reflecting Snoqualmie Valley School District’s large elementary population as well as the significant number of young people in Snoqualmie, where new census data shows that more than one in three residents is a minor.
School growth
In 2006, Snoqualmie Valley School District saw a 7 percent increase in enrollment projections. It was unexpected in a district that had been averaging 2 percent growth for the past quarter-century.
“Two percent is a nice, manageable clip for a school district,” said Jeff Hogan, the district’s Director of Instructional Technology.
Seven percent, though, meant about 700 more kids than usual, and it left district officials scrambling to find space for them. Two failed bonds, in 2007 and 2008, to build a new high school later, additional students have been absorbed and projections have settled back down to the 2 percent range.
The speed at which these enrollment projections can change, though, is one reason the district doesn’t rely exclusively on U.S. Census data.
“We know about the 5 to 18-year olds, already, but it’s a fascinating data point for us in the 0 to 5 age range,” said Hogan.
“It’s not going to help us with the high school population,” though, says District Communications Director Carolyn Malcolm. “It’s telling us the data from last year.”
Instead, the district uses a complex formula to predict where and when it will need to add buildings. Going into the calculations are the existing capacity figures for each school, the programmatic needs of the students—some students require smaller class sizes, reducing the overall number of available classrooms, live birth rates in the district and county-wide, new housing starts in the area, historical trends, and analysis from a professional demographer, Calm River Demographics (www.calmriver.com).
Enrollment figures from October 1 are also included, since these figures are used by the state to determine the school’s level of government funding—usually 70 percent or more for the Snoqualmie district.
“We’re on top of the growth,” Hogan said.
Current projections show Mount Si High School exceeding its 1,750-student capacity by 2013, which is why the school board agreed last year to annex Snoqualmie Middle School as a freshman learning center. With the annexation, the high school enrollment projections show the high school population staying within the capacity range until about 2030. At the middle school level, enrollment exceeds capacity in 2013, when SMS is annexed. If the school bond is approved in April, a new, larger middle school will give the district capacity for students well beyond 2030.
Police presence
Beyond schools, Snoqualmie’s Police Department has kept pace with the population over the past decade, and grown into the community. Officers work with young children through events like the Tanner Jeans Memorial Foundation’s bicycle safety rodeo and a school crossing-guard program at both Snoqualmie and Cascade View Elementary Schools. The police station is where parents, youth, and counselors meet as part of a juvenile intervention program with an Eastside agency. Until 2004, when grant funds elapsed, the department always had one or two school resource officers located at Mount Si High School.
“That’s where we could see a definite benefit, having the school resource officers there,” said Capt. Steve McCulley. “They’re very helpful in preventing things.”
In the near future, the department will begin another program working with high school students, a Police Explorer program for young people interested in law enforcement.
These programs make up the bulk of Snoqualmie officers’ encounters with the youth of Snoqualmie. Of course, there are some juvenile arrests, for vandalism, fighting, or possession of illegal substances, but “anything serious, we fortunately don’t come across that often, McCulley said. In a review of the last decade’s worth of juvenile arrests, he found less than 80 arrests a year, typically, and no particular increase in juvenile arrests as the population grew.
Overall, though, McCulley anticipates that the department will need to grow again soon.
“We’re looking at, with the increased population, adding a detective,” he said, and maybe another officer, too.
Community Center
Snoqualmie’s demographics will drive programming choices at the future Snoqualmie YMCA and Community Center.
Learning of the new census numbers, “it reignites the enthusiasm we have,” said Dave Mayer, executive director of the Snoqualmie facility. The new YMCA, slated for summer 2011 construction at Ridge Community Park, is being designed meet a need for youth spaces.
Mayer said there will be many before- and after-school programs for children and a dedicated area for teens. The teen center will be more than just a hangout. Mayer said teen-oriented programs such as Earth Service Corps, Youth in Government and outdoor recreational activities will get young people involved in their communities in positive ways.
“We want to use the building as a jumping off point,” Mayer said. “Being able to have those kids participate in YMCA programs will increase the dedication those kids have to the community, their school and the different activities going on in their community.”
The facility’s Leadership Development Director, expected to be hired in the next few weeks, will work daily to facilitate programs.
The $4 million, 11,000-square-foot facility is in permitting now and on track to break ground in May.
The demographics have changed since bond campaigns began for the new YMCA.
“At the time, it was very young families,” Mayer said. “Now, those young families have turned into families with teens. The timing couldn’t be better.”
That said, Mayer anticipates a continued turnover of new, young families to Snoqualmie.
“I see it as continuing to be a young and pretty vibrant community.”
Story Time
There’s still enough room at story time for parents and their kids to dance in a big circle at the Snoqualmie Library.
“This was smaller than last time,” Shyanne Olsen observed about the 40-some kids, parents and grandparents in the crowd last Wednesday. Olsen and her husband Dane bring their son and daughter, River and Shasta, to many children’s events at both the Snoqualmie and North Bend Libraries, and they’re getting used to the crowding in both locations.
“That’s kind of part of the experience, of getting a lot of kids in a room together,” said Dane.
No one is complaining about the attendance, though. Children’s Librarian Jennifer Loomis loves to see her story time events filled with parents and children, but admits to being overwhelmed when it drew nearly 100 people when the new library opened on Snoqualmie Ridge in 2007. She attributes part of the huge response to the new location.
“Where the library was, hardly anyone could find us. Here, no one can help but notice us,” Loomis said.
Dot Pacholski is a regular at the library’s story time, along with her 2 year-old granddaughter, Cara, who won’t be torn away from an impromptu play date now that story time is over. “Next time,” the grandmother jokes, “I think I’ll just give her the car keys and have her come by herself. I think she could!”
Pacholski has lived on Snoqualmie Ridge for five years, and thrilled to have her six grandchildren—all age 5 or younger—close by on the Ridge, in North Bend and in Bellevue.
“There’s always so many young families, so the kids always have someone to play with… it keeps us young, too, being around that.”
Her nearest daughter, on the Ridge, just had twins. Maybe that’s why Pacholski is so confident that “this is only going to get bigger.”
