Northshore schools to try to balance enrollment

Northshore schools to try to balance enrollment

By Rachel Tuinstra
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

Principal Bill Bagnall has only to look out the window of Canyon Creek Elementary at the new home construction to see the future of his school: overcrowding.

Just a couple miles down the road, Fernwood Elementary is in the throes of overcapacity at more than 600 students — not counting kindergarteners who are housed elsewhere.

Meanwhile, in the Northshore School District's eastern area, where few homes are being built, some schools are below capacity and enrollment is projected to drop.

The imbalance is the impetus behind a districtwide project to look at ways to shift students so that school enrollment is more evenly spread.

This may mean that some school boundaries will be changed or adjusted, a process which sometimes is controversial.

Much of the district's "enrollment imbalance" is due to the Urban Growth Boundary, which runs through the district, said Blake Puckett, a former principal for the district who is now a consultant on the enrollment-balancing project.

Northshore enrollment balancing

Northshore School District is beginning to look at how to balance the enrollment between schools. Parents are encouraged to submit comments or concerns to the district. Comments may be emailed to the district at balance@nsd.org or by calling 425-489-6399.

The boundary was established by the state Growth Management Act to prevent sprawl.

"The urban/rural boundary line is a creator of a huge mess," Puckett said. "The west side of the line is considered urban, so you can build as much as you possibly can. On the east side, it restricts growth, and it's pretty much built out."

The new homes appear to be attracting younger families, while the areas with less development are seeing enrollment flatten out or decline.

For instance, Canyon Creek Elementary is projected to see student enrollment increase by nearly 220 students, while Bear Creek Elementary is projected to see enrollment decrease by 90 students.

District officials say they are proceeding cautiously, taking a look at new-home development, birth rates and neighborhood trends.

The district plans to hold community meetings and gather public comment, Puckett said.

Recommendations will be made to the school-district board in September, and whatever changes are approved will be implemented in fall 2007.

The problem is districtwide and starts with elementary schools, and then dovetails to the district's junior and senior highs. Elementary schools projected to be overcrowded will flow into junior highs that will be overcrowded, and on to high school.

Likewise, undercapacity elementary schools mean fewer students in the secondary schools they flow into.

"As a district, we need to step back as a whole and look at what to do with this," Puckett said. "We aren't going to make rapid-fire decisions. We want to educate people about the problem, and assure them that we will keep neighborhoods together."

If school-attendance boundaries are adjusted, then students would be shifted to other nearby schools, he said. The district won't implement drastic measures, like busing students long distances to other schools, Puckett said.

Principals at the schools that are overcapacity or undercapacity say that changes will be necessary to keep their schools functioning.

"Next year will be difficult," said Fernwood Principal Anne Bayard.

With a comfortable capacity of 550, the school has about 610 students in first through sixth grade, while its 84 kindergartners are housed at nearby Canyon Creek Elementary.

Fernwood has six portable classrooms, and has had to get creative to find smaller instructional spaces for English-language learners and students who need math and reading support.

Desks have been pushed into hallways where small study groups can work, and rooms the size of large walk-in closets have been turned into classrooms.

Adding more portables doesn't help because there simply aren't enough bathrooms or library space to accommodate more students, Bayard said.

At the end of the day, hundreds of students pour out of classrooms and into lines waiting to board one of eight buses. Seventy-five or more vehicles may stack up on nearby streets as parents try to pick up their children.

"We've seen it coming," Bayard said. "But the housing came faster and quicker than we expected."

Lake Washington School District has seen similar trends and worked through a similar enrollment-balancing process in 2004, said Janene Fogard, the district's deputy superintendent.

The district had been seeing enrollment increase in the Redmond area, particularly because of the Redmond Ridge development, while enrollment has stayed stable or declined in the western parts of the district, she said.

Fogard has observed that in some neighborhoods where children have grown up, residents have chosen to remodel rather than move, resulting in less turnover in younger families.

"There's a natural aging cycle that neighborhoods go through," Fogard said. "But I think it may be compounded by the remodeling phenomenon."

The process of changing school boundaries and attendance balancing is complex, and requires a district to look at a variety of factors, she said.

"It really depends on the area and the development of the area and the transitions going on within a community," Fogard said. "When you are projecting student enrollment out five years, you are projecting for kids that haven't been born yet. So you have to look at birth trends, history of a neighborhood, etc."

About three miles from overcrowded Fernwood is Frank Love Elementary, at 335 students. The school was built to hold about 530 students, and enrollment was in the high 400s five or six years ago, Principal Scott Beebe said.

The neighborhood no longer has as many families with young children, Beebe said. While Frank Love has more space, it has fewer staff for after-school programs and fewer students to get involved in those programs.

"We're the only school in the district who don't offer cross country or track after school," Beebe said. "It's not a funding issue, but there isn't enough interest to offer it."

Rachel Tuinstra: 206-515-5637 or rtuinstra@seattletimes.com