Middle school No. 3 development underway
Published 4:43 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
Despite the rainy afternoon and overcast skies, community members and Snoqualmie Valley School District No. 410 representatives gathered at 47128 S.E. Middle Fork Road in North Bend on May 25 to participate in the groundbreaking ceremony honoring the new middle-school site.
Superintendent Joel Aune said the site will go out for bid in the fall of this year with the goal of having construction completed by the summer of 2008. The school is expected to be open for the fall 2008 academic year.
Boundaries for who would attend the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade middle school have not yet been decided, though Aune said there will be future opportunities for the community to share its opinions.
The site for middle school No. 3, which is expected to be able to hold about 600 students, spans 30 acres, with an extra 10 acres reserved for a future elementary school (though there are no current plans for an elementary school).
The site is being developed in two phases: phase one is the site development, which includes preparation and implementing the below-ground infrastructure and is underway now with phase two being the actual construction.
The design for the future middle-school building will include a large, windowed commons area with ceilings that peak at 40 feet. Connected to the commons will be three wings.
The school will include computer labs, space for 24 classrooms, a library, gym, kitchen, stage and specialty classrooms for sciences, art, music and more.
The design was approved by the school board in July 2005.
The school district’s director of business services, Ron Ellis, said that construction costs will run about $19 million.
The development of a third middle school is part of the $53.5-million bond passed by voters in 2003.
It is the last of multiple school improvements that included the construction of Cascade View Elementary School on Snoqualmie Ridge, the new sports facilities at Mount Si High School, a new gymnasium at Chief Kanim Middle School, an improved gymnasium floor at Fall City Elementary School and a school-wide fiber-optic system for high-speed communication.
Another bond would have to pass before development could begin on the potential elementary school that shares acreage with middle school No. 3.
Dr. Rich McCullough, the former superintendent of the school district from 1988-2005, was involved in the new middle-school’s planning and site-selection processes from its inception and was in attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony. He also continues to serve the district in an advisory role, while teaching as an adjunct professor at Western Washington University in Bellingham.
“It was a very emotional experience,” he said about the ceremony. “My heart and soul had been invested in the school district.”
McCullough said that during his tenure as superintendent, the district was aware of the area’s growth potential and that at least one new middle school and elementary school were part of the district’s vision from the beginning.
“We knew that we were on the verge of tremendous growth,” he said. “We immediately went to work on long-range planning … [but] we didn’t go to the voters until we had a need and I’m proud of that.”
Aune noted that the local student population has seen multiple shifts in growth rates over the past few years that may be a sign of things to come. There was a 7-percent growth rate between the 2004-2005 and the 2005-2006 school years, which was significantly higher than any other similar time span, percentage wise.
In the last 10 years, the growth rate has been anywhere from a 1.5-percent decline to a 3-percent growth, he said. The district is projecting a conservative estimate of about 3 percent for next year, but it could reach 7 percent again.
“We’re not in a position to afford to be able to wait,” Aune said about the district’s growth. “There are some challenges on the horizon for the school district, but there’s also some really exciting opportunities as we grow. It’s a pretty exciting time.”
