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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Steady growth


University High students mill in the hallway on their way to class. U-Hi is over capacity, with 1,800 students.
 (Holly Pickett / The Spokesman-Review)

It’s a four-letter word school districts try not to say very often. Bond. And in the near future that’s just what the Central Valley School District might be asking Spokane Valley voters to think about, again. In a work session Wednesday night, school administrators and the board of directors discussed the facility needs of the district over the next six years, and beyond.

In a nutshell, many of the district buildings are getting close, or have already outgrown their current space.

Based on Oct. 1 enrollment figures, Central Valley schools have 308 more students taking up desks this year. That’s up nearly 3 percent from last year.

“Everything is just packed to the gills,” said district administrator Tere von Marbod.

The most troubled spot is in the district’s east end, where steady growth has filled the schools with more students than the buildings can hold, while schools on the west end go largely underutilized.

On Wednesday, Superintendent Mike Pearson told the board that Liberty Lake Elementary School will be over capacity next year.

“That’s not far from now,” Pearson said. “And Greenacres Elementary School is rapidly approaching capacity.”

Liberty Lake Principal Linda Uphus said she will be short two classrooms next year. This year, she had to turn some families new to the neighborhood away from the school, because there is no room. Those kids are bused to nearby Progress and Adams elementary schools.

“It makes it difficult to keep that sense of community,” Uphus said.

Liberty Lake had 48 more students this year, and Greenacres had 40. The majority of the growth is in the kindergarten classes. The district had to add two more sections, one at each school after the start of the school year.

“So the question is what are we going to do?” von Marbod asked the board. “We have to do something.”

Administrators laid out a 13-step plan for board members to consider Wednesday night that would address the growth issues over the course of the next six years.

The plan is based on the findings of a community linkages committee charged with investigating growth in the district.

The committee, made up of representatives from the district, the cities of Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake, and Spokane County, told the board in May that eight of the district’s 19 neighborhood schools would surge past capacity by 2008.

The committee recommended building two new schools over the next five years.

But time is running out and students are running in.

The committee said Liberty Lake would be over capacity by 386 students in 2008. It has 717 students this year, and capacity is 749. Greenacres Middle School would be 224 students over capacity, despite a recent remodeling project that added some additional classroom space this year. The two new high schools that opened in 2002 would also be over by more than 100 students.

The proposed plan would first address the need to alleviate overcrowded Greenacres and Liberty Lake elementary schools.

The district recommends relocating Barker Center to a new building in a more central location. The center currently houses a special needs program and an alternative high school program.

“The current Barker location doesn’t give us any room to expand,” said Becky Imler, special education coordinator for the district.

After moving those programs to a different location, the current Barker Center would be reconfigured to house a kindergarten-only program. The district would bus the kindergartners from Liberty Lake and Greenacres to the center. The move would free up three much-needed classrooms at Liberty Lake and some at Greenacres.

Board member Cindy McMullen voiced concern about how some parents would feel about shipping their small children away on buses.

“It’s hard to put little ones on the bus,” McMullen said.

Barker Center is only five miles from the two elementary schools, and buses would not travel on Interstate 90.

The move would also be temporary, until the district could complete the next step, which would be the construction of a new elementary school.

The district has already begun to look for land on the northeast side of the district, preferably on Mission Avenue, Pearson said. The school would be a mirror image of Liberty Lake Elementary, which is 7 years old.

“We would take the current Liberty Lake design, and just change the colors,” Pearson said.

Other steps include remodeling five elementary schools, including Greenacres, and Evergreen Middle School.

The district proposal would also build a new middle school in Liberty Lake. A $25 million construction bond to build the new school and remodel three other schools was rejected by voters in 2003

Eventually the district would like to build a new North Pines Middle School on the northwest side of the district. The current building was last remodeled in 1992, and is located on busy Pines Road.

“I’m concerned about the traffic and all the stuff going on around there,” board president Anne Long said. They would scout for a better piece of land for the school.

Board members discussed whether it would be beneficial to sell the building and use the funds to build a new school, or keep it and use it as they have the old University High School. Students occupy the aging school while their schools undergo remodels.

Pearson commented that the current North Pines building would make a nice City Hall.

Under the plan, other schools would also be updated as needed under the proposed plan, including with up-to-date technology.

The district estimated total costs for the projects to be about $45 million, with an estimated completion date of 2010.

“I want to stress that’s a ballpark figure,” Pearson said.

The bond would be used in conjunction with state matching funds, which many of the old buildings would qualify for because they are, or would be, 20 years old. Schools that have updates that are 20 years or older would also qualify for state funds.

The proposed cost does not include the rebuilding of North Pines Middle School, which could cost between $14 million and $15 million.

“This is a picture of what we need to do, to bring all of the buildings up to the same standard,” said Long.

While Wednesday’s meeting was merely a think tank of ideas flowing over, Pearson said he hoped plans could be finalized in the spring of 2005, and the board could then decide when to place a bond issue before the voters.

The process leading up to that point would include many opportunities for the community to comment.

If the voters reject the bond, the district could be forced to use the space currently available. Ponderosa currently has five empty classrooms.

“That state’s answer would be to bus students all over the place,” McMullen said. “But that’s not what we want to do.”

She, like other board members, stressed the need for equality within the district.

“We answered our most crucial need with our last bond (for the high schools),” she said. “But to offer state-of-the-art high schools without solid middle schools and elementary schools really misses the boat.”