Snoqualmie Valley School Board To Decide Fate Of Snoqualmie Middle School By Mid March

At Thursday night’s school board meeting, two new Snoqualmie Valley School Board Members, Carolyn Simpson and Geoff Doy, took the Oath of Office.  Five minutes later, it was business as usual.  The fate of Snoqualmie Middle School, home to roughly 500 students, is up to this new school board to decide.

The 2013 Snoqualmie Middle School annexation to Mount Si High School as a Freshman Learning Center (FLC) consumed a majority of Thursday’s meeting and was included in the agenda under the ambiguous title, “Educational Programs and Facilities Planning.”  Superintendent Aune stated that due to the addition of new board members,  the annexation timeline needed revisiting; forcing the new board to decide to continue with the planned 2013 annexation or delay it.  The past board prolonged the decision due to flat/declining high school enrollment; saying a decision wasn’t imminent last year.  SVSD administration, though, wants a board decision by mid March, stating if the annexation proceeds in 2013, there are important details to finalize.  New board members Simpson and Doy both stated during their campaigns that they did not support the annexation without a replacement middle school, which SVSD will not have in 2013 due to bond failures last year.

District administration asked the board to base its decision on three main criteria:  1) Facility capacity at high school and middle school levels;  2) Delivery of education at middle and high school levels;  3) Mount Si High School – what its future looks like with and without a Freshman Learning Center.   Other considerations to weigh include how the board’s decision impacts future school bonds, the economic climate, state matching funds and if they delay, how long will it be?

During the high school capacity presentation, a new phrase, “programming determines capacity,” came up.  Capacity is the term for how many students fit in a building.  In recent years total high school capacity (Mount Si and Two Rivers) has fluctuated.  The 2011 Capital Facilities Plan (CFP) decreased that capacity by about 100 students compared to the 2010 CFP.  At the same time, 2011 CFP increased middle school capacity by about 200 students.   The reasons?  High school capacity changes depending on what programs are offered in specific classrooms and/or how classrooms are being used.  Special Ed classrooms, for example, don’t usually house 27 students; the number of students per classroom the administration uses when calculating high school capacity.  The same is true of Two River’s classrooms. Computer classrooms offer less student capacity.  A portable classroom currently used for storage and copying is not included in building capacity because it’s not used for teaching.

In contrast, 2011 middle school capacity increased due to changing its important capacity formula from 25 students per classroom  to 27.  The district says higher middle school class size is a state-wide reality so this increase makes sense.  The high school capacity formula, however, was not similarly increased, which would have grown its class size from 27 to 29.  As a result, administrators say based on high school capacity (i.e. how all rooms are used)  and enrollment predictions from Calm River Demography, MSHS will be at capacity in 2013 and exceed it by 260 students in 2015.

Calm River Demography’s numbers are not used to estimate district enrollment for budgetary purposes, but they are used for long-term capacity planning and Capital Facility Plans that determine impact fees and timing of school construction bonds – rationale for this being it’s easier to hire more teachers at the last minute than it is to build schools.  For budgetary purposes, very conservative numbers are used, “not Calm River numbers,” according to district Business Director Ryan Stokes.  In SVSD’s  2010 Capital Facility Plan, Calm River estimated high school FTE (full-time equivalent) enrollment to be 1,830 in October 2011.  Enrollment was actually 1,565.  The 2011 Capital Facility Plan (approved by the school board in June 2011) used Calm River’s estimate of 1,626 high school students in October 2011.  This time the estimate was closer, but again, enrollment was 1565.  Current January 2012 high school enrollment is 1540.

The district is in a tough spot.  Converting SMS to a high school FLC and condensing three middle schools into two is a huge decision impacting its tight budget and over 500 Snoqualmie middle schoolers who will require busing to the eastern edge of North Bend or down to Fall City; and hinges on demography estimates.  Currently there are very few middle school portables.  Roughly 16 are needed to downsize students into two middle schools.  Funding for the portables wasn’t discussed.  Ryan Stokes said with the addition of these portables, Twin Falls and Chief Kanim would have the same percentage of students housed in portables as the high school and elementary schools do; concluding that middle school common areas should be sufficient.

At the next two school board meetings SVSD administration will give presentations on the remaining two SMS annexation decision criteria – the delivery of education in a two and three middle school model and the future of Mount Si High School with or without a FLC.  Board members set an extra work session date to discuss and analyze pertinent data.  Geoff Doy commented that many hours of discussion could be needed.  Scott Hodgins stated that his most important decision criteria was the educational programming – that it should determine building capacity.  Carolyn Simpson asked if the annexation discussion should be delayed another year since they have capacity “wiggle room” at Mount Si.  The rest of the board declined, pushing for a mid March decision.

The long meeting adjourned at 10:45PM.  Important district decisions will occur in the next two months and board members encourage residents to get involved.  In growing school districts, school board decisions are never easy; especially one that might take a middle school away from 500 students.  The economic climate makes passing school construction bonds difficult.  Board members have important data to analyze and serious pros and cons to weigh.

There are School Board Meetings at 7:30PM on January 26 and February 9th.  An additional School Board Work Session happens Saturday, February 2nd, from 8AM – 12PM.   All happen at the District Office and are open to the public.  No Public Meeting has been scheduled on the SMS Annexation timeline.