After a Lake Washington School District (LWSD) bond for new schools and buildings failed in February, the district has been working on solutions to address its growing enrollment and overcrowding.

One of those solutions has been to hold a boundary process so that all classroom space throughout the district could be utilized. The process began with a survey sent to parents for input on the criteria that will be used to develop potential new boundaries. The district then formed a staff committee of district staff as well as elementary school principals to analyze the survey data to come up with the new boundaries.

Residents in the Redmond Learning Community can offer feedback for the committee at www.lwsd.org and have until Dec. 15 to provide their comments.

LWSD Superintendent Traci Pierce is scheduled to put forth her recommendation for the board of directors on Jan. 26, 2015. The board will then put the issue to a vote.

SHIFTING EAST?

With these dates only a month and a half away, some parents in the district’s Redmond Learning Community have grown concerned with how the most recently presented options have more students shifting toward schools in east Redmond, an area already dealing with overcrowding issues.

“I don’t think it’s fair to the incoming families…as well as the existing families who have been dealing with overcrowding,” said Julianne Bogaty, who has two kids attending Rosa Parks Elementary School on Redmond Ridge.

As previously reported, Rosa Parks has had overcrowding issues for several years. Just two years ago, the school achieved a population of about 800 in a building made for 483 — not including the 10 portable classrooms on campus. The latter increases the maximum capacity to 713.

Temporary boundary changes that shifted some students to Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary School in Woodinville have brought the school’s enrollment down to 609.

Initial options for boundary changes set the population at Rosa Parks to 657.

“We were OK with that,” Bogaty said, adding that the new proposed boundary shifts to east Redmond is disproportionate compared to the rest of the district.

Sabrinath Rao, who has two kids at the school, said it does not make sense to bus students into the community and overload an already overloaded school when there are other schools in the district with empty classrooms. He added the Redmond Ridge area already has a traffic problem and that it is almost impossible to walk to school safely now. Bringing in buses will just add to the problem.

“The whole plan is complete nonsense,” Rao said.

OVERCROWDING AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOLS

Kathryn Reith, director of communications for LWSD, said this shift is the result of what is happening at the middle school level. She said they are proposing moving students in that direction so they can feed into Evergreen Middle School (EMS).

On that campus, Reith said, they have room for four portable classrooms, which will create some space. Redmond Middle School (RMS), she said, only has room for one additional portable, due to permitting restrictions. In addition, Reith said the district can also build smaller offices at EMS, which teachers can use as planning space. This will open up their classrooms when they are not being used.

“There’s a lot more we can do at Evergreen to handle more capacity,” Reith said.

She said if no changes are made, projections set EMS to hit 906 students by the 2017-18 school year and RMS to 1,244 students — putting the former at capacity and the latter with 211 students past capacity.

The additional portables and planning offices may create more classroom space at EMS, but some parents are concerned about the fact that there is no plan to expand common areas such as the cafeteria or gym.

“We don’t want Evergreen to become the next Rosa Parks,” Bogaty said.

She said Rosa Parks is overcrowded to the point where some students must eat lunch in their classrooms as the cafeteria is too full to accommodate everyone.

In addition, time in common spaces can be difficult to come by and teachers often need to sign up in advance to use them, Bogaty and other parents said.

Jen Boon — who has a child at Rosa Parks, EMS and Redmond High School each — said when students have to eat in their classrooms, it takes away from teachers’ planning times or even an opportunity for a break to just go to the restroom. As a result, she said, students are not being taught as optimally as they could be.

“All of these kinds of things do put pressure on these shared spaces,” Reith acknowledged about creating more classroom space but not expanding common areas. “It’s not ideal.”

KEEPING COMMUNITIES TOGETHER

One option some Redmond-area parents have suggested is to send some students to Finn Hill Middle School (FHMS) in Kirkland as there appears to be space at that school.

Monika Fodor, who has one child at Rosa Parks, said many of the students will already be on a bus, so they might as well be going to a school that has room.

Reith said that is not an option because while FHMS may have space, it is a really long drive.

“There’s no geographic sense there,” she said, adding that the board of directors asked the boundary committee to keep students within the same learning community whenever possible and to avoid lengthy transportation whenever possible. “What we’re trying to do is keep kids together…That separation of peer group is difficult, so we want to avoid that if we can.”

While this may be the district’s goal, Bogaty said she has seen other school districts take such measures and bus students throughout the district to accommodate growth and LWSD needs to seriously consider doing the same.

Boon added that she thinks parents understand the situation and would be OK with busing to Kirkland.

“Busing is an acceptable alternative (to more overcrowding),” she said. “I think parents are willing to be flexible.”