Student enrollment is up, but not in the ways that Snoqualmie Valley School District staff were expecting this school year. Comparing start-of-year enrollment numbers with the 2013-14 official count taken in October, staff reported that the number of student full-time equivalents, or FTEs, has increased, and most significantly at the high school.
Assistant co-Superintendent Ryan Stokes presented the preliminary enrollment information to the Snoqualmie Valley School Board at its Sept. 11 meeting, as part of the board’s bond-planning process. He added that official projections would come from the district’s professional demographer in October.
Initial counts taken in the first week of school showed there were 54, or 3.2 percent more FTEs at the high school, 27 more in middle school (1.8 percent) and 75 more at the elementary schools (2.5 percent). Overall, the growth rate was 2.6 percent, slightly higher than the district’s typical growth.
While the district expected, and budgeted, for growth at every level, Stokes said, high school and middle school counts were both slightly lower than projected—3.2 percent growth at the high school instead of 4.2 percent, and 1.8 percent at the middle school instead of 3.2 percent. Elementary enrollment, however, was budgeted at almost no growth, just 0.1 percent. Preliminary numbers are showing about 2.5 percent more elementary FTEs.
Stokes invited the school board to guess which elementary school had the most growth over the past year, as an illustration of how difficult projecting enrollment can be. Board members guessed every other elementary school—Opstad, because of the nearby housing developments nearing completion, Cascade View, because of the area’s historic growth, and so on—before Stokes said it was Snoqualmie Elementary School.
“Snoqualmie Elementary, with almost no active construction,” said Stokes. “My point is, this is hard to project.”
The school board is taking close look at enrollment numbers now, as it considers its next capital facilities bond. Most board members support, in some degree, a $225 million bond that would rebuild Mount Si High School over eight years, plus build a new elementary school in the next two years and convert the freshman campus to a middle school about halfway through the rebuild.
A new Mount Si High School would include a separate freshman campus facility, and would hold 2,100 students. However, enrollment projections for the fall of 2022, the soonest the new high school could be completed, range from 2,000 to 2,200.
Architectural firm NAC assured the board its initial plans could be expanded to a 2,400 student capacity, and Matt Rumbaugh presented detailed information on that option, also at the Sept. 11 meeting.
Although the footprint of the new high school would be essentially the same, Rumbaugh noted that the larger school would include all three-story buildings, and many would be on stilts to allow for on-site parking. The district would have to provide roughly another acre for student parking somewhere else, too.
Also, the costs would increase. The initial plans for a 2,100-student high school rebuild were estimated to cost $160,000 more than a year ago. Combined with a $35,400,000 new elementary school and $20,200,000 in updates and repairs across the district, the initial bond amount was calculated at $216 million, with a tax impact of an additional $2.24 levied per $1,000 of property value, roughly $670 more annually on a $300,000 home. Since then, costs have increased by about $9 million. In comparison, the 2,400-student high school proposal presented last week costs about $195 million.
The school board is scheduled to meet next at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 25, in Snoqualmie City Hall, and is expected to vote on putting a bond on a February ballot at its Oct. 9 meeting, at the same location.
