T ahoma’s overcrowding and budget problems will impact the district’s younger students next year with bigger class sizes overall and some loss of computer labs and activity spaces — and some students may be pulled out of their home schools and bused across town.
Where physically do we put kids?
Superintendent Mike Maryanski told the school board that the district is struggling with configurations for next year as it looks at staffing needs.
“We’re full in the elementary buildings, and we have very low flexibility,” he said. “We’re rapidly getting to” larger class sizes because the district has run out of space for new teachers.
A $125 million construction bond would have added a new elementary school as well as classrooms across the district, but voters rejected the bond in April 2011 — and two others before that. As the second-fastest growing district in King County, all Tahoma buildings except the middle schools are now full beyond their designed capacity. Tahoma offers the lowest square footage per student in the county.
“Overall, class sizes are going to increase beyond what we would prefer and what we believe is best for students and teachers,” said district spokesman Kevin Patterson. “Cramming students into spaces not designed for classroom use, overtaxing basic support facilities such as lunchrooms, lavatories, libraries and hallways will have an impact on student learning.”
At Rock Creek Elementary, for example, Human Resources Director Mark Koch initially told the board it might consider eliminating all-day kindergarten to open up a classroom after enrollment projections showed a need for an additional first-grade class.
“That’s something we’re wrestling with: Where physically do we put kids?” Koch said.
Shadow Lake Elementary is the only elementary that is losing a bit of enrollment, so it has more space flexibility than the other three elementaries. As a result, the district considered shifting school attendance boundaries for next year. But the idea was rejected because the district could not devise a plan that would shift enough enrollment out of the Rock Creek attendance area.
Instead, the district plans to enact a “cap-and-shuttle” program for students in schools that have run out of room, busing them elsewhere, most likely to Shadow Lake. For example, the fifth grade classes at Glacier Park are projected to be maxed out at 29 students in the fall, so additional students would be bused to another school that has smaller fifth-grade classes. The likelihood of the cap-and-shuttle plan going into effect will depend on final enrollment numbers in the fall.
Maryanski told the board Tuesday that the district is planning to keep all-day kindergarten at Rock Creek. To create space for first grade, it will move a teacher from third grade to first, then make the third-grade classes larger.
Rock Creek’s third-grade classes average 22.8 kids this year. Next year, they are projected to average 27.4. First grade currently averages 25.8 but with the new class will be lowered to 22.1 next year. The principal decided that if the school must increase class sizes it would be better to do it with older students, said Patterson. That means that if third grade grows much more than projected at Rock Creek, some of those kids may be shuttled to another school.
Class sizes in Rock Creek’s behavior support program, RAVES, will also need to grow, Maryanski said, and the school will lose its only computer lab to create more classroom space. The district will rely on the portable netbook computers on carts to accommodate students needing computer access, Patterson said.
Lake Wilderness, the district's oldest elementary, is the largest elementary school in Washington state.
At Lake Wilderness, which is now the largest elementary school in the state, enrollment projections indicate a need for two and a half more teachers, but the school only has space for one and a half — and that’s only if it converts the band room to a classroom.
As a result, second-grade classes will increase from an average of 23.3 students to 26.6. The district will investigate possibly moving the Lake Wilderness zero-hour band class to another site.
Cedar River Middle School also is gaining enrollment and needs two more classroom teachers. The district is installing a new double portable there to replace two older ones with rotting or weakened floors, but to create enough space for the new classes, the school will lose a computer lab, leaving one small lab.
The elementaries have reached their legal maximum for additional portables, though the district is seeking permission from the city to go beyond the maximum and add one more portable at Rock Creek.
Patterson said the district is concerned for the future as more houses are being built in Maple Valley than originally projected.
“This is just the beginning,” Patterson said. “What happens when we have no more computer labs to convert or portables to site? That is when the conversation begins at the school board and administrative level about alternative scheduling, such as double-shifting and year-round multi-track.”
Since February, the Post has written a number of stories about the bond failure and long-term proposals to deal with overcrowding. Check the archives, or to read the most recent story, click HERE.
What do you think about the overcrowding issue and the district’s plans to manage it? Add to the comments posted below.
Please share this story with neighbors to find out what they think. Click the “share” button below to post it to Facebook OR email the link.
To be sure you don’t miss any updates in the Post, you have three options: Click the “like” button below to receive alerts on your Facebook newsfeed; click the Twitter icon in the sidebar to follow us on Twitter; OR type your email address in the sidebar (to the right of this story) to receive once-a-day digests of new posts.
Really? Catch a clue?
To all the naysayers of Public education, here it is, “THE CLUE, ” someone,who didn’t know you, paid for you to have a education.
Someone who was retired.
Someone who was unemployed.
Someone in a recession.
Someone who chose to send their kids to private school.
Someone who chose to homeschool.
Someone who had no children
Someone, paid for YOU, for us!
Whatever your political views, conservative, liberal, it is fair, it is just for us to pay it forward, to invest in ALL the childrens futures, it is what makes us a great nation! We NEED to PAY IT FORWARD, just like those strangers did…for us.
Stacy, mother of two, educator, conservative, and who is going to continue to PAY IT FORWARD
Naysayers and people who say no, please understand and THINK, someone PAID for you!
Someone when you were a kid paid for you to go to elementary school, finish high school, and help you get your start in life.
Someone who didn’t have kids.
Someone who was retired.
Someone who whose parents choose homeschooling or private school… they still paid.
Someone who was unemployed.
Someone who was in a recession.
Whatever you political party or agenda, someone paid for you. It is fair, it is equal, it’s our RESPONSIBILITY to PAY IT FORWARD!
Perhaps the city needs to quit issuing new home building permits. No point in adding more people to the problem.
Bonds passing = better facilites, less crowding and good school districts.
Good school districts drive up home values and bring wealth to the community.
Blame anybody you want. Weather you are for or against school bonds, the bottom line is the better the district the stronger the home values are. The value in the house within a superorior district will far out reach the few tax dollars you save each year by not passing bonds. Do the math look at every district that passes the majorty of their bonds.
Maple Valley is “conservatitve” was mentioned above. how about we move beyond group think and party rhetoric and think about how to grow young brains for the next 12-30 years? how much research dare say “science” is needed to prove education is numero uno? sorry GOP, it is what is is. vote education first.
This is sad news. My wife and I just moved into the Tahoma school district and don’t have kids yet but are expecting our first. We won’t have kids in the local schools for 5+ years, but this news has me a little worried. I know this is a conservative part of the county but we need to fund our schools if we want the TSD to maintain its good reputation!
I’m with Ron…I hope we can follow Issaquah’s model for school bonds to develop and support them in a collaborative and positive way. Issaquah is also a generally conservative part of the county but they manage to get their school funding measures passed. It’s just sad that the school bond measures didn’t pass, and now we’re seeing the consequences.
I work in the Issaquah School District and I agree on the parent/teacher/district efforts to pass bonds. Pretty amazing.
That being said, I teach fourth grade and haven’t seen less than 28 kids in my classroom for the last four years. The last two years I had 31 students.
I can attest that classroom size has a big impact on kids. I can manage them fine…but there’s only so much mentoring and personal attention than can be provided on any given day, especially when I have 4+ special needs kids, numerous ELL learners, and a wide spectrum of learning skills.
So long as parents understand these limitations, then we’ll cope. If they can’t, then it’s time to pony up.
I would say that although I hate to see the children suffer, they may need to. Perhaps if parents see the quality of their child’s education affected, they will not be so quick to vote down another bond. I am a conservative who in general is against new taxes, but there needs to be some common sense. When people do not want to support schools (and other essential government services such as police, fire, etc.) our quality of life is going to be affected. volunteered to help with phone calling for bond/levy support in another district, and I couldn’t believe how many people said they were not going to vote for it just on principal of not supporting taxes. Well, Tahoma voters, you reap what you sow.
I grew up in a Los Angeles County suburb where they were not able to update and expand the school so they bought modular trailers, converted them in to classrooms and placed them on school grounds. Students didn’t care where we learned and it helped with the overcrowding. Maybe a possibility?
They are actually at the legal limit of portables at at least one school.
Did you read the article or have you visited the schools? We have the maximum number of modular trailers now.
You’ve known this was going to happen since the bond didn’t pass. Why don’t you have alternative schedules already in place? You’ve had two years to debate it and figure out a plan. It’s past time to step up and make a decision. You are not going to make everyone happy no matter what you do. So, please make a decision and let’s move on and start getting used to the changes that are bound to happen. Our children and teachers don’t deserve this kind of indecisiveness.
When the community voted against the bond, it gave you permission to make the alternative scheduling changes. Just do it! I’ve seen and experienced year round elementary schools and double shifts at the high school within the same district. No, it wasn’t comfortable nor convenient, but it worked while it was needed.
I wonder if the community doesn’t see all this talk as idle threats because you haven’t done anything to fix the problem. You have only talked about it, had many meetings to discuss it and complained about it in the newspapers. You say there is an overcrowding problem and I know there is, I have four children at 3 different schools in the district this year, so do something now. Don’t wait another year! Our children and teachers deserve so much more!
I know they’ve been working hard to find a plan that works best for the students in the last 18 months. Year round may work better in LA, but there are many things here that are different. One HUGE problem is that, as far as I know, at least Lake Wilderness Elem lacks a/c. In fact their windows don’t even open! And there aren’t the funds to continue mist of the extra programs like AP classes that make our district the top percentage of the country. Obviously things are going to go but I’m not going to berate the people doing everything they can for the kids the community voted against.
(I totally blurred two posts together – substitute “other areas” for “LA”.)
It is a shame that the school board and the city of Maple Valley planning are so disconnected. City engineers should know better when allowing for more development of housing and business that the plan needs to include infrastructure and schools. They should have included the school board in the planning process if they didn’t, which seems to be the case. For every x number of houses built, the builders and city should have the responsibility for building schools and the taxpayers the responsibility for keeping the schools staffed. What is happening here in Maple Valley is a crying shame and the future of this community and our country is going to continue to pay for this kind of mistake long into the future. — Jenny Conley, mother of 3 at Rock Creek
@ It is a shame . . .
Maybe I’m not paying close enough attention, but I remember recently voting for a construction bond that was rejected by the majority of people in Maple Valley. The school district was attempting to address the issue of overcrowding, but the population didn’t agree to support the effort. I voted YES. I’m not sure I’d place the total blame on the governmental officials. They’re OUR kids; it’s all our responsibility to see that they’re well cared for.
Incidentally, after running into a similar issue in the late 90′s/early 2000′s, Issaquah has adopted a very successful collaborative model for the development and promotion of school bonds. As I drove to work the day before the most recent vote last month, I saw parents, business leaders, elected officials, and district employees all standing shoulder to shoulder endorsing the bond. It passed with roughly 70% approval. So, it can be done.
Jenny, you forgot the depression we are in. Far too many of your cohorts in the Maple Valley district are unemployed, a spouse is unemployed, or they are totally, massively underwater in their homes and the mortgage.
What would you like those people to do? Sing tra la la la la?
Mother of 3 Jenny, you need to catch a clue.