BELLEVUE, Wash. — The Bellevue School District (BSD) will present its proposed plan to consolidate three elementary schools during a school board meeting on Thursday.
The BSD said more than one consolidation scenario could be presented at the meeting, involving different schools.
The community will then have another month to give feedback and attend open houses. After that, a school board vote on a proposed plan will be scheduled.
The seven BSD elementary schools under consideration for the plan include Ardmore, Eastgate, Enatai, Phantom Lake, Sherwood Forest, Woodridge, and Wilburton.
According to the district, enrollment has been dropping since the 2019-2020 school year and they expect numbers to continue to drop for the next 10 years.
Over the last three years, Eastgate Elementary School has seen the largest enrollment drop at 35%. Out of the schools up for consideration, Enatai Elementary has the lowest enrollment decrease of 21%.
KING 5 spoke to the district's chief communication officer at length about the top concerns of Bellevue families.
"Why it was going so quickly?" said Janine Thorn, BSD chief communications officer. "Could it be slowed down? The district wants to make sure that we can continue to offer and even improve the services and add new services and programs."
The BSD also cited concerns for the district's budget and pointed to the upcoming stop to emergency relief funds from the COVID-19 pandemic.
State representatives acknowledged some of those concerns.
"During the global pandemic, we worked with school districts and our federal partners to issue funding via the Elementary & Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER)," said Rep. My-Linh Thai (D-41st District), who is a former Bellevue School Board Director, in a statement. "These funds were distributed statewide based on Title 1 allocations. Where those funds fell short, the legislature invested billions of dollars to stabilize funding at pre-pandemic enrollment levels."
Concerns across Western Washington
One of more than 10 school districts KING 5 reached out to this week. The Mercer Island School District (MISD) said it recently discussed a school closure of its own but ultimately decided against it.
"Due to declining enrollment our school board discussed the possibility of closing an elementary school," said Ian Henry, communications coordinator for the MISD. "This discussion was the board considering all options to address our declining enrollment and the financial impact of that enrollment. After this discussion, the board decided closing an elementary school is not an option they are considering for the 2023-24 school year."
This week - the board will hear from two demographers who were hired to look at enrollment projections for the next five to 10 years.
"Our Long Range Facilities Planning Committee will also be presenting to the board on possible reconfigurations of district facilities in light of the current budget," Henry said.
The MISD said it is looking to the Washington State Legislature to "fix the prototypical school model in the current legislative session to adequately address school funding statewide."
According to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction - the ARP ESSER fund, authorized by the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), provides funding to schools to support sustained safe building re-openings and operations while meeting the academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of students resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Department of Education approved Washington's plan for use of the ARP ESSER funds on Nov. 24, 2021.
While none of the other districts KING heard back from currently have concrete plans to consolidate or close any schools they said their financial futures are concerning.
Everett, Highline, Issaquah, Puyallup and Tacoma schools said they have concerns about their funding with several concerned about the expiration of the state's funds for school emergency relief. Each of these districts also reported some form of enrollment decline over the past three to five years.
"Our ESSER dollars are running out," said Catherine Carbone Rogers, Highline communications officer. "We will need to make adjustments to spending. We are anticipating some cuts over the next few years, but we have a plan to spread out the cuts over years. We do not plan to close any schools."
In the Everett School District (ESD), leadership not only cited the exit of ESSER funds but also there is a "2% decrease in Regionalization (part of the McCleary fix in 2018)."
The ESD said, "the state continues to underfund basic education." The district noted that $9 million in special education costs are not funded by the state.
KING 5 reached out to Gov. Jay Inslee's office about some of the specific notes on state funding from districts. The governor's office is taking a look at these concerns and plans to send KING 5 a detailed response in the next few days.