Committee makes elementary boundary recommendation; ?suggests middle school pattern

Published 3:51 pm Tuesday, November 3, 2015

To prepare for the expansion from five to six elementary schools in the fall of 2016, Snoqualmie Valley School District began an attendance boundary review process this fall.

A committee of school staff and administration also considered options for future middle school attendance boundaries when the district returns to three middle schools in the fall of 2019.

Public meetings were held Oct. 20 and 21 to discuss the top two proposals, answer questions and collect community feedback about the proposed boundaries. In addition, three online surveys were administered to gather feedback on options under consideration.

Hundreds of comments were received by the committee, and many factors were taken into account in developing the final recommendation.

The school board discussed the change and is expected to approve the committee’s final recommendation, for Option B2, at a special meeting, 6 p.m.  Wednesday, Nov. 4 at Snoqualmie City Hall. Among the changes recommended in this option are:

• Move the Mount Si Road and parts of North Bend Way to North Bend Elementary from Opstad
• Move Deer Park and Aster Creek to Elementary 6 from North Bend Elementary
• Move Eagle Point area and S.E. Vaughn to Elementary 6 from Fall City Elementary
• Move the Heights and “K-North” areas to Elementary 6 from Snoqualmie Elementary.

The committee is also recommending that next year’s fifth grade students be allowed to continue enrollment in their current schools for 2016-17, if they choose.

Parents will be responsible for providing transportation for these “grandfathered” students for the year.

In the fall of 2019, all freshman students in the Snoqualmie Valley School District will move into the newly rebuilt Mount Si High School, returning their current building to a middle school.

By then, the district will have six elementary schools, and staff are planning for a two-elementary-per-middle-schol “feeder” pattern to populate the middle schools. The Attendance Boundary Review Committee has been studying this and has recommended the following middle school boundary changes to the Superintendent to begin in the fall of 2019:

Elementary 6 and FCES students attend Chief Kanim Middle School

OES and NBES students attend Twin Falls Middle School

SES and CVES students attend Snoqualmie Middle School

Public input will not be taken at the Nov. 4 meeting.