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

CVSD requesting funds to ease overcrowding

The Spokesman-Review

The Central Valley School District is drawing a crowd. You can see it at Sunrise Elementary School, where students are served lunch in the hall and eat in classrooms. In Liberty Lake and Greenacres, kindergarteners are bused out of their neighborhoods. And the situation may only get worse next fall, according to district officials.

The district anticipates being over capacity at Broadway Elementary School, Central Valley High School, Greenacres Middle School and Sunrise, Greenacres and Opportunity elementary schools in the fall. Students will continue to be bused to less crowded schools as the district continues to find solutions to growing enrollment.

“Next year is going to be solved the same way this year was,” Superintendent Mike Pearson said at this week’s school board meeting. “Busing is just a default.” The board should adjust attendance boundaries in the next year or two to help ease overcrowding, Pearson said.

School board members weren’t enthusiastic about using portable classrooms to add capacity. Vice president Cindy McMullen was concerned that if portables are added they might be in place for a long time. Board member Anne Long doesn’t like portables, which would not have plumbing or running water. “I think that’s a waste of money,” she said. “I think we should be building sound buildings for our children.”

“They’re good for the surges, not growth,” said board President Tom Dingus. “It can’t be a permanent solution, but it can be a solution to not overbuilding.”

Portables cost about $200,000 for a two-classroom building. A permanent classroom costs from $242,000 to $266,000.

Among other suggestions to handle the influx of students: each high school could add four classrooms and some other schools could add between one and four new classrooms. But Greenacres Elementary and Sunrise can’t support any growth.

Overall, the district has seen steady enrollment growth for years and the trend is expected to continue. The Liberty Lake and Saltese areas are expected to see a large number of new homes built in the coming years. The middle schools and high schools are projected to be over current capacity by hundreds of students by 2012, said Brad Wayland, director of facilities and operations.

The district is working on a capital facilities plan that examines the anticipated infrastructure and space requirements for the next six years. The plan will be sent to the Liberty Lake, Spokane Valley and Spokane County governments to request impact fees on new home construction when completed.

The facilities plan suggests renovations of seven schools – Chester Elementary, East Valley Middle School, Greenacres Elementary, North Pines Middle School, Opportunity Elementary, Ponderosa Elementary and Sunrise Elementary. The combined projects would cost $97,980,000 in 2007 dollars, ranging from $8,755,000 for Chester to $24.7 million for North Pines Middle School. Some of the projects would likely be eligible for state matching grants.

“My assumption is that we would gut the buildings out and start from scratch,” Wayland said. “Some of these schools are in dire need. This would be the total cost, but not the total cost to the taxpayers.”

Other smaller projects recommended are renovating the HVAC system at the Kindergarten Center, Progress Elementary, Horizon Middle School and the Learning and Teaching Center.

Another option to handle anticipated growth is to build new schools. The draft facilities plan includes construction estimates of $16.5 million for a new elementary school, $26.1 million for a new middle school and $71 million for a new high school. The district already owns property for a new middle school near Liberty Lake Elementary, a new elementary school at Mission and Long or Mission and Holl and a new high school at 16th and Henry.

The district has not identified funding sources for any of the proposed renovations or new construction. Impact fees, if approved by the local governments, won’t be enough to pay for new schools by themselves. Running bonds to pay for new construction is in the draft plan, but the district has been unable to pass a bond in recent years.

A $25 million bond failed in 2003. It received a 55 percent yes vote, but like all bond issues needed 60 percent to pass. A $55.2 million bond received 57 percent approval in March 2006 and a $75.7 million attempt that November received 53.5 percent. The district last passed a bond in 1998, when voters approved $78.1 million to rebuild Central Valley and University High Schools.