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Bond aims to ease LL school crowding
12/29/2014 2:58:22 PM

By Treva Lind
Splash Contributor

Moriah Quimby never anticipated problems enrolling two of her three children at Liberty Lake Elementary School in late November, when her family moved into a house just down the street. 

Quimby and her family returned here after living nearly three years in the Seattle area. She and husband Luke Quimby have sons, Kallon, a fourth-grader, and Parker, a second-grader, as well as daughter, Averly, a kindergartner. During a stop by the school office to register her sons, she learned LLES had no room.

"When we moved, I never assumed overcrowding was an issue," said Quimby, who grew up attending Central Valley schools. "All I was told is, ‘We don't think we have room for either of them.' A couple of days later, I was told my second-grader could go there, but Kallon would have to be bused to Broadway."

Broadway Elementary is located nine miles west of Liberty Lake Elementary School - beyond at least five other Central Valley elementary schools with crowding issues of their own. 

Projects to ease overcrowding, renovate aging structures and provide better security are at the forefront of a Central Valley School District bond measure being considered by voters in the Feb. 10 special election.

Ballots arriving by mail later this month have the CVSD request to approve a $121.9 million bond for a number of district-wide facility improvements. Unlike prior requests, this bond doesn't call for an increase in taxes. The tax rate would remain at $1.96 per $1,000 assessed value, because the current bonds that paid for Central Valley and University high schools are about to be paid off.

One bond proposal specific to Liberty Lake includes a plan to build a K-2 school east of LLES on district property that shares a site with newly constructed ball fields. The site would provide space for up to 624 students to attend their neighborhood school, rather than being bused to the Barker-area Kindergarten Center or to Broadway Elementary School, the district said.

Quimby said it was important to have Kallon in a school within walking distance because he has a peanut allergy and asthma. To prepare for his first day at school, Quimby said she and Kallon met with a Broadway teacher and nurse, but her son soon became very withdrawn and anxious. 

"My husband and I were careful not to let our disappointment show, but he wasn't buying it," she said. "Just before what would be his first day at Broadway, Kallon didn't sleep half the night. He was nervous being that far away and not with his brother."

After one last check with LLES, a slot for Kallon opened up at the last minute, she said.

"Now Kallon and Parker can walk home together. I was one of the lucky ones. My heart breaks for a family that moves in down the street, and they're not able to get their kids in. How would they know?"

CVSD Superintendent Ben Small said that in addition to the Liberty Lake K-2 school construction, other bond projects affecting Liberty Lake-area residents would include:

• Expansion and renovation of Evergreen Middle School to allow for up to 750 students. The district plans to adjust Evergreen's boundaries to in turn give Greenacres Middle School room for the students it draws. Today, approximately 100 students out of the GMS attendance area are overflowed to Evergreen.

• Expansion and renovation at Greenacres Elementary School, for up to 624 students.

• Safety and security features planned at all schools, but also enhancements for LLES, GES, GMS, and Central Valley High School to provide card-swipe access control and quick lock-down mechanisms.

"The K-2 facility has a huge impact on Liberty Lake families being able to go to their neighborhood school," Small said. "By building the K-2 elementary, it will keep us from busing approximately 300 students out of Liberty Lake." 

Building the K-2 school wouldn't disrupt the community's new ball fields, which will remain intact, Small said. LLES would convert to serve grades 3-5.

"The other thing that's important, as Evergreen is expanded, it will relieve pressure on the Greenacres Middle School attendance area."

Melanie Rose, district spokesperson, said finding room for fifth-graders transitioning to GMS is becoming increasingly more difficult, to the point of asking for more volunteers to go to Evergreen.

"It used to be just the students who moved in during the summer," she said. "The growth is such that we're digging into ones who live in the district and have for some time."

The bond request to improve facilities also considers room for full-day kindergarten at all schools and anticipated growth, Small said. "As soon as buildings are finished, we'd be able to transition all the kindergarten students back to their home schools."

All district schools would get security upgrades, Small said. Renovation of Greenacres Elementary in itself would provide for much greater safety, he added. Greenacres Elementary is an open-concept school, and that means classrooms are built in pods and have no doorways or walls. The school has blind entryways where visitors can move past the office without being seen, and many access doors.   

Renovation would correct the design for secured access and removal of portable classrooms, he added. 

Other projects as part of the bond proposal include:

• Renovate and expand Opportunity and Sunrise, each for 624-student capacity, and Chester Elementary, for 502-student capacity.

• Renovate and modernize Ponderosa for a 502-student capacity.

• Move Summit School from Keystone facility to the old Blake school, and add four classrooms.

• Renovate the old Yoke's building on Sprague Avenue, recently purchased by the district, partly to house Barker High School, after it vacates Blake. The former grocery store also would hold the Early Learning Center, currently located at the old University High School.

• Land acquisition to expand North Pines Middle School in the future, and to do early specification work for a new high school at 16th and Henry.

• Construction of a new gym roof for Horizon Middle School to replace one that leaks.

• • • 

IF YOU GO ...
The Central Valley School District will host three informational open houses about the 2015 bond and levy measures. Voters are encouraged to bring questions for informal conversation at these events. School tours will be available. All open house events run from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Jan. 13 - Evergreen Middle School, 14221 E 16th Ave.
Jan. 14 - Opportunity Elementary, 1109 S. Wilbur Road
Jan. 15 - Liberty Lake Elementary, 23606 E. Boone Ave.

• • • 

ABOUT THE LEVY
The Central Valley School District will also be asking voters to consider the extension of a school levy currently in place. Central Valley voters will be asked on the Feb. 10 ballot to approve a three-year School Programs & Operations Replacement Levy, at estimated $3.56 per $1,000 of assessed property valuation. About 22 percent of the district's annual budget comes from this voter-approved levy, including state matching funds.

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