Construction crews work on the Washougal School District's new $47 million campus for grades K-8, made up of a replacement Jemtegaard Middle School and the new Columbia River Gorge Elementary School. Washougal is one of many school districts in Clark County currently in the process of building new schools or hoping to, as the county could see at least $735.7 million in school construction in the near future.
Washougal's new K-8 campus will have two schools that share some services.
The Washougal School District will have new boundaries starting next school year.
A replacement Jemtegaard Middle School and the new Columbia River Gorge Elementary School will open this fall on a shared K-8 campus. The $47 million campus was part of a $57.7 million capital improvement bond Washougal voters passed in 2015.
The new boundaries were created by a committee made up of 10 parents and six principals, making sure each of the district’s elementary and middle schools were represented. The district also hired a consultant, FLO Analytics, to work on the revised boundaries.
“It’s not easy any time you approach boundary review processes and, ultimately, changes that are going to impact students and parents,” Superintendent Mike Stromme said.
The school board adopted the boundaries at its March 28 meeting, and the district will notify parents later this month or next if their students fall under a new school boundary. Letters will be mailed out to all families on April 19 alerting families which school their children will be attending in the fall, according to Rene Carroll, district spokeswoman. The district will also have a website that goes live the following week where residents will be able to enter their address and learn which school boundary they live in.
The new Columbia River Gorge Elementary School boundary will cover primarily the southern and southeastern portion of the district, bordered by Northeast Washougal River Road to the north and the Columbia River to the south. To the east, the new school’s boundary is irregular, partly encircling the Cape Horn-Skye Elementary School boundary around Southeast 377th Avenue to the east and Southeast 35th Street and Southeast Moffet Road to the north.
Gause Elementary School’s boundary is west of Columbia River Gorge.
“The re-drawing of the elementary and middle school boundaries, it’s a pretty significant endeavour,” Stromme said. “It’s necessary because of the opening of the new Columbia River Gorge Elementary, our fourth elementary school, and the replacement Jemtegaard. It’s new, but it’s replacing the old building, and in the process, it’s giving us some extra capacity.”
Overcapacity in the district is at its worst at Gause and Hathaway Elementary School. Gause is at 134.1 percent capacity and Hathaway is at 101.2 percent capacity this year, according to a presentation made by the boundary review committee. Jemtegaard is currently at 93.8 percent capacity, and Canyon Creek Middle School is at 69.8 percent, according to the same presentation. Stromme said the goal is to get each school to around 85 percent capacity.
“One of the reasons the community supported the bond was so that we could reduce the overcrowding and the reliance on those portables,” he said, adding that all the elementary schools use portable classrooms.
While the district won’t know how many students are in each school until the school year starts, Stromme said the district has been using a projection that states 468 students will attend Columbia River in the fall. Jemtegaard will see a reduction of around 35 students in the fall, even though the replacement building will have a higher capacity than the current one.
The replacement Jemtegaard Middle School should hold around 600 students, and the new elementary school is expected to fit roughly 550 students.
Washougal officials will look at their in-district boundary exception procedure this month and post revisions to the process in late April. The boundary exception form will be available May 1.
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