Parking problem: High school remodel proposal requires more land

A new proposal for the remodel of Mount Si High School would shorten the construction timeline from eight years to three and streamline the transition back to a comprehensive (grades 9 to 12) school building.

It would also require the district to buy and demolish the homes on seven parcels of land on the southwest corner of the high school property, either through a direct purchase, or through condemnation proceedings.

The Snoqualmie Valley School District has already made offers on each of the properties, based on a recent appraisal, and is waiting for official responses from the owners. Condemnation proceedings, in which the district would petition the state for the right of eminent domain to purchase the properties at a value to be set by a jury, could be resorted to if one or more of the property-owners refuses to sell.

“The idea is that we want to offer them fair market value and work with them to make the transition as easy as possible,” said district assistant superintendent and business services director Ryan Stokes.

He estimated the combined value of the lots at roughly $1.5 million. He also sympathized with the families who will be affected by the acquisition, saying “this is not fun for anyone.”

If acquired, the properties would complete a square on the south side of the high school property. Initially, they would be used for extra parking, which will be needed both during the construction phase and afterward, to support a capacity of 2,300 students and the staff that come with them. Parking had been an issue since the school board began considering an expanded high school; architects had cautioned the board that a student capacity beyond 2,100 would require roughly at least an acre of more parking.

Once construction of the building, is complete, the property would be transformed into a new baseball field, to replace a field that will be built on during construction.

Detailed plans for construction are now being developed, but the general proposal would include a single, three-year construction phase to build 11 sections of classrooms, in three-story segments and a two-story segment above ground-level parking, according to the proposal that NAC Architects presented June 25. The building would stretch from the parking lot northeast, onto the baseball field.

Meanwhile, classes would continue in the existing facilities, undisrupted, until the new building was done.

“In August of 2019, we’ll be able to move the entire school into the new building,” said Stokes, so “everybody would have to move only once,” instead of the piecemeal transitions of an eight-year, three-phase construction project. In that proposal, freshmen would move back to the main campus in 2019, and students would move between old and new construction for the remainder of the project.

“It’s the cleanest (proposal) we’ve seen,” said Stokes.

After the big move, the project will continue for another year, with demolition of the old building, remodeling and elevating the gym to be out of the floodway and big enough for 2,300 students, and reconstruction of the baseball field.

The new school will be designed from the ideas that a design team of school administrators, teachers, parents and students recommended. These ideas included an open design, an elevated structure for security, keeping special needs students on the ground floor, and support for creating “small learning communities,” or core groups of students who take most classes together.

“The question was how do you take a 2,300 student high school and make it feel smaller,” Stokes explained.

Also, “There was a strong value placed on maintaining the freshman campus in a separate area,” Stokes said, after reviewing the Thoughtstream feedback on the district’s construction plans.

Designs for the new school building will include roughly half of one wing of the building dedicated to freshmen.

The final designs are projected to be completed this fall, with construction projected to start in April 2017.

The Mount Si High School remodel is the largest element in a $244 million bond that district voters approved in February. Others include a sixth elementary school, which the district broke ground on earlier this year, and repairs and updates to every other school building in the district, some of which are already underway.