New STEM School to be housed temporarily at Eastlake High

Published 1:34 pm Thursday, March 29, 2012

Construction of a new $26.5 million science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) high school in Redmond will not be completed in time for the start of the 2012-13 school year following a delay in the permitting process, the Lake Washington School District (LWSD) announced last week.

As a result, LWSD’s new choice school will open in the fall of 2012 in a temporary setup at Eastlake High School in Sammamish — approximately four miles from the planned STEM school site near Alcott Elementary School in southeast Redmond.

Delays in the required permits have pushed the completion of the first phase of the three-phase STEM school project until late fall or early winter, forcing the district to house up to 300 STEM students — all ninth or 10th graders — at Eastlake in the meantime.

“I know the Eastlake staff, students and parents will be gracious hosts for their STEM school counterparts during this short-term stay,” LWSD Superintendent Dr. Chip Kimball said in a press release. “I recognize the inconvenience involved and appreciate their understanding.”

Two appeals to the new school site’s conditional use permit were filed last December and denied by a King County hearing examiner last week, according to the press release.

The appeals were filed in King County’s Department of Development and Environmental Services by Redmond residents Susan Wilkins, Marianne Spencer, Albert Spencer and Robert Donati. The appeals expressed concern about a variety of topics, including the traffic, safety and wildlife impacts the school would have on the surrounding neighborhood, which is zoned rural residential.

Construction of the school’s first phase can begin after a 21-day waiting period if there are no more legal challenges, according to district communications director Kathryn Reith. If there are no further legal challenges or construction delays, the district is aiming to open the first phase of the new STEM school to students sometime in November, according to Reith.

The district will provide bus transportation to STEM schools students between their home high school and Eastlake and that bus service will continue once the STEM school opens, Reith said. She added that the district has already done “a lot of traffic work,” including the addition of a second entrance, at Eastlake in preparation for the new freshman on campus as the district switches to a four-year high school configuration starting next fall.

The district decided on Eastlake as the temporary location for STEM students after looking at “all possible options,” Reith said. District officials from the facilities department worked with commercial realtors, looking into retail, warehouse and office space, but owners of spaces large enough to house the school could not accommodate a short-term lease, Reith said.

The district also contacted neighboring school districts and the Lake Washington Institute of Technology, but no deals could be finalized, said Reith.

With the district’s change to four-year high schools, along with a new classroom wing and other additions, Eastlake’s capacity will grow to 1,840 students. The Renaissance School of Art and Reasoning, a LWSD choice middle school, had already planned to move from the Eastlake building into three portables. All of these changes will allow Eastlake to accommodate the STEM students on a temporary basis, Reith said.

“It’s going to be cozy at Eastlake,” Reith said. “We will be able to fit everyone in for this short period of time. It’s not optimal, but hopefully students will be back to their planned spaces fairly quickly.”

Construction of the new STEM school will be built in three phases with the second phase expected to be complete by January 2013 and the entire construction done by spring of 2013, according to Reith.

“I am disappointed that this new school will be in temporary quarters for a while,” Kimball said in the press release. “But we are fortunate that Eastlake will be able to host it this fall. In future years, Eastlake will need that space.”