WASHOUGAL — The Washougal School District is buying 31 acres northeast of Washougal for a future school site.
The district will purchase the property, south of Southeast 20th Street near 340th Avenue, for $1.025 million with funds from impact fees on new developments.
“This is a beautiful part of the district, and securing the 31 acres of land now lets us be ready for future growth in the community,” school board President Sadie McKenzie said. “Board members have visited the site and concluded it will serve the district well in the future when we need it.”
The district has had a purchase option on the property since 2020.
“The current option agreement expires at the end of December, so it is time for the district to make this purchase,” interim Superintendent Aaron Hansen said. “Purchasing the land at this time lets the district use the impact fee resources that are available now and restricted only for this type of use.”
Hansen said construction of a new school could be 10 to 15 years out.
For one thing, the property currently lies outside the Washougal Urban Growth Area and cannot be used for a school until that changes.
Hansen said it was his understanding that the change in the boundary is going to happen.
Clark County and the city of Washougal are currently updating their comprehensive land-use plans, which must be completed by Dec. 31, 2025, as mandated by state law.
“Clark County and the city of Washougal, through adopted policies and planners’ statements, have demonstrated that each is supportive of including the property in the Washougal UGA by the end of 2025,” according to the school board resolution approving the purchase.
District leaders have yet to determine what type of school will end up on the property, Hansen said.
“I can imagine this 31 acres — that could be a middle school, that could be an elementary school, that could be a K-8,” he said. “We’ve kind of compared those 31 acres to the Jemtegaard/Columbia River Gorge Elementary campus, fitting that campus on 31 acres, and it looks like that would work.”
The property is a good fit for a campus in other ways, according to Hansen.
“It’s level, it provides quick and easy access, and it has proximity to our other schools,” he said. “We don’t have an immediate need for it, but we strongly believe that in the future, we are going to, and that property is going to be much more expensive when we’re going to need it.”
The district has experienced an enrollment decline in the past several years, but it projects enough of a re-bound in the second half of the decade to necessitate a new school.
“You look at the growth in East County and in our neighboring school districts. … We believe that’s certainly possible within Washougal as well,” Hansen said. “Even though there’s fewer students across the state, we believe that this is an area where people want to move to and want to live. The next generation of young families with children are moving into (the school district), and we are seeing new developments in the city that we believe will result in additional students.”
