PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles School Board has delayed a decision on when to propose another school construction bond to voters until after newly elected board members are seated in 2016.
Options the board may consider next year could include reopening Fairview Elementary School, building a wing on Stevens Middle School and moving all sixth-grade students there or building a new elementary school, board member Lonnie Linn told those attending the Port Angeles Business Association meeting Tuesday morning.
The board had discussed placing a bond to pay for a new high school on the February ballot.
That won’t happen, said Linn, who attended the meeting as a candidate running for re-election in the Nov. 3 general election.
Because there will be two or three new School Board members as of Jan. 1 and their positions on bond measures are unknown, the current board has declined to put a new bond on the February 2016 special election ballot, Linn said.
“The decision will not be made until the new board is seated,” he said.
He added that a decision on how to address the district’s needs could be a year or more in the future.
That’s because the board has more factors to take into account.
After several years of declining enrollment, elementary schools are seeing an increase in students. At the same time, state laws are restricting class sizes.
The two factors create a need for more classrooms, Linn said.
Linn, 60, a construction estimator and salesperson, attended Tuesday’s meeting to take part in a voter forum with challenger Rick Marti, 70, a building supply trade retiree.
Marti was unable to attend Tuesday’s forum due to another obligation, so Linn answered questions about the current status of the School Board’s bond plans and finances.
He told of new complications affecting district options.
In 2014, state voters approved Initiative 1351, mandating the reduction of class sizes at all levels, from kindergarten through high school.
Under the voter-approved law, kindergarten through third-grade classrooms are required to have no more than 17 students.
Port Angeles schools’ 2015 class sizes range from 15 to 27 students in those grades.
In fourth through 12th grades, each classroom is required to have no more than 25 students.
Reduced class sizes are already being phased in, beginning with kindergarten through third grades.
Fourth- through sixth-grade class size reductions are expected to be added sometime in the next few years, Linn said.
The new requirement could require as many as 16 additional classrooms in the district that already has no space for more students.
“The elementary schools are busting at the seams,” Linn said.
In October 2001, the district had 1,987 students in kindergarten through the fifth grade in seven elementary schools.
By 2003, that had fallen to 1,856 students. In June 2004, the district closed Monroe Elementary School at 106 Monroe Road.
In October 2006, enrollment fell to 1,839. Fairview Elementary School at 166 Lake Farm Road was closed in June 2007.
Roosevelt Middle School was converted to an elementary school, and sixth-grade classes were moved to the elementary schools in September 2007.
With the addition of the sixth grade in October 2007, elementary enrollment was 2,117 students.
By 2011, elementary enrollment had fallen by another 257 students to 1,860.
A state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction enrollment projection indicated that by 2018, enrollment would fall to 1,682 students.
Instead, elementary enrollment began steadily growing again, with 1,882 students in October 2012; 1,907 students in 2013; and 1,923 students in 2014.
This year, the district had 1,968 enrolled students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
The estimated cost of building a new high school has increased from $98 million to $113 million because of higher construction cost estimates and interest rates, Linn said.
Voter rejection of a $98 million bond in February indicates voters are not ready for such a large reconstruction project, he said.
Fairview was built in 1973, with additions and upgrades in 1978, and has received only basic maintenance since it was closed in 2007.
The district spends about $25,000 annually to maintain the buildings, Linn said.
Fairview was put on the market in 2014, and the district received an $814,000 offer for the 9.48-acre property from a buyer who planned to locate a marijuana growing and processing facility there.
The sale fell through after strong opposition from neighbors and permitting difficulties, and the property remains on the market.
Linn said his preference is to add a wing on Stevens and move the sixth grade from the elementary schools to the middle school.
The move would free the present 11 sixth-grade classrooms for other uses in the elementary schools.
Stevens, built in 1960 and renovated in 1978, is located on 39 acres at 1139 W. 14th St. and was identified in the district’s Long Range Facilities Task Force in 2014 as being in need of renovation or replacement.
There is no current plan, estimated cost or potential location for the third option — a new elementary school, Linn said.
In 2014, the cost of a new elementary school was estimated to be about $18 million.
A task force identified the Stevens Middle School property as being large enough to build a large new elementary school on the same property, which would reduce the disruption for Hamilton students.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
