Schools

Lake Washington School Board OKs STEM School Reports

Board members voted unanimously to deny a resident appeal and approve a hearing examiner's report of compliance with King County code.

The Lake Washington School District (LWSD) board of directors voted 4-0 Monday to approve two hearing examiner reports that pave the way for a in Redmond. Board member Christopher Carlson was absent from the meeting.

The choice school would serve students from throughout the district and have a curriculum dedicated to science, technology, engineering and math—also known as STEM subjects. The seven-acre building site is located on property next to that has been owned by the district since 1989.

The two reports in question Monday concerned an  that was required as part of the district's conditional use permit approval from King County and a resident appeal to the district's State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) plan for the site. The two complete reports can be found here and here.

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The county hearing examiner who drafted both reports recommended the board adopt a decision to deny the resident appeal and to approve the conditional use permit.

Although several resident concerns were raised in both reports—including traffic, parking and pedestrian safety—the board members and Superintendent Chip Kimball said the nature of a specialty choice school makes its impact less substantial than that of a traditional middle or high school.

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The benefits of the project outweight the drawbacks, they said.

"We go through this with every site, and there are pros and cons with every site," said board member Nancy Bernard (District 3). "There's no perfect site; there's no way to make everything work out as well as the neighbors might like."

The hearing examiner also recommended LWSD consult with Metro to discuss bringing public transportation to the site and with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to discuss the possibility of providing separate emergency vehicle access from the STEM school onto state Route 202.

School board members said Monday they will have those discussions with the appropriate agencies, but several said budget constraints mean it's unlikely the talks will be successful.

"These are outside agencies that we have absolutely no control over," said board member Jackie Pendergrass (District 1). "We can't guarantee that it's going to happen."

Regarding parking, board members said the district has the ability to add more spaces if overflow parking in the neighborhood becomes a frequent issue.

Redmond resident Dave Allgood, who lives on Northeast 51st Street and attended Monday's board meeting, said he's worried that the board members' promise leaves too much open to interpretation and believes overflow parking on neighborhood streets would compromise the safety of student walkers and other pedestrians.

"It only takes one accident ... to make it that frequency is not really the issue," Allgood said.

LWSD spokeswoman Kathryn Reith said Tuesday the district must still secure a number of additional permits with King County before construction can begin on the STEM school.

Officials aim for the building to open to students in the fall of 2012, but decisions on the school's academic program—including what grades it will serve and whether students will attend the school for a full or half-day—have yet to be finalized, Reith said. The district expects to form those plans sometime before this fall, Reith said, at which point decisions regarding the school's transportation system, among other details, will be made.


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