On April 23, 2020 the Snoqualmie Valley School Board unanimously approved a district committee recommendation to change the attendance boundaries for Timber Ridge (TRES) and Cascade View (CVES) Elementary Schools on Snoqualmie Ridge.
The decision moves the K-North neighborhood from TRES to CVES. The change will also impact middle school boundaries for the impacted neighborhood as TRES and CVES feed to different middle schools.
The new boundaries are effective for the 2020-21 school year, but the district is providing flexibility for impacted families, allowing them to ‘grandfather’ and stay at their current schools next year.
Timber Ridge currently has 200 more students than other SVSD elementary schools and the district is also preparing the completion of the large Panorama Apartment complex located within the current TRES attendance boundary.
As explained in our previous article, a big point of contention with the proposed boundary revision is that it breaks up the geographically close Snoqualmie Ridge neighborhoods of the Heights and K-North. A lot of feedback the district received centered on the desire to keep the two neighborhoods at the same elementary and middle schools.
According to the boundary revision PPT, there are too many students in the two neighborhoods to provide the needed enrollment balance at TRES and CVES. To move both neighborhoods to Cascade View would create the same crowding there that Timber Ridge is currently experiencing – unless CVES some students were then shifted to Snoqualmie Elementary School.
The district, though, it is not recommending a larger elementary school re-boundary at this time, but it has established a Facilities Study Committee to develop a districtwide recommendation for future elementary school capacity, which could include moving other developments at some point. If such a larger re-boundary is recommended, the district said K-North would not be moved again.
This will be the 3rd boundary revision for the K-North neighborhood – located at the northern edge of Snoqualmie Ridge – over the past decade. In 2010 it was moved from Cascade View to Snoqualmie Elementary due to overcrowding and in 2016 it was moved to Timber Ridge when the school opened.
School Board President Carolyn Simpson commented:
“The decision to change boundaries is a difficult one to make, and our school board spent thoughtful time asking for more information, considering other options, and reviewing public comment. And, we had to do so in this current Stay at Home environment. We provided many opportunities for public comment (email the board, send in public comment for the board meetings, type in q and a during the meetings). We have a strong history of welcoming public comment, and we continued that in this Zoom meeting period. In this case, last night, we made the unanimous decision to accept the committee recommendation to move the KNorth neighborhood’s assigned school boundaries. This decision helps move students to schools (both elementary and middle) closest to their homes (a good thing) and will help balance the ability for our educators to provide more balanced educational offerings.”
Families who wish to stay at TRES and CKMS for the 2020-21 school year have until May 15th to notify the district. Those who opt to stay next year will also have priority in the 2021-22 open enrollment process to continue at those schools. Open enrollment, though, is space dependent.
