Superintendent Recommends Rosa Parks Students Move to Wilder

Lake Washington School District Superintendent Dr. Traci Pierce has recommended a temporary boundary change starting this fall that would move students from Rosa Parks Elementary to Wilder Elementary to reduce overcrowding. She emailed her recommendation to parents of students on Wednesday.

Her recommendation, known as Scenario C, was the one chosen by the temporary boundary committee. If put into effect, it would move the boundary between the two schools for the 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years.

Scenario C intends to make Rosa Parks walkable for all students. It moves all of Redmond Ridge East except the Deveron neighborhood to Wilder and impacts 201 current students and 112 students from new development. LWSD spokeswoman Kathryn Reith said previously the reboundary committee opted against a straight divide between Redmond Ridge and Redmond Ridge East because that scenario would eventually put Wilder over capacity. 

Pierce will make the recommendation to the district’s Board of Directors at its Monday, Jan. 14, meeting and the board will vote on the specific proposal at its meeting Jan. 28.

“This option provides the best balance of moving students to Wilder Elementary from Rosa Parks Elementary without placing Wilder over capacity and requiring additional portables at Wilder, which would result in additional cost to the district,” Pierce said in a news release. “It keeps most neighborhoods together and makes Rosa Parks entirely a walking school, minimizing the transportation impact.”

Scenario C is one of three possible boundary scenarios that the committee shared with Rosa Parks and Wilder Elementary parents in November. The committee considered but rejected eight other scenarios. Parent input on these options was sought through paper and web surveys and a total of 345 individuals responded, including 256 who identified themselves as having students at Rosa Parks and 87 with students at Wilder.

Scenario C, which moves most of Redmond Ridge East to Wilder, was ranked number one among the three scenarios by 204 out of the 345 parents who responded to the survey. Scenario B was the second choice while Scenario A was a distant third. Survey results are available on the district website.

In September, Dr. Pierce met with the Rosa Parks Elementary community who were concerned with the size of the school. The school’s enrollment is 795 and is projected to reach 1,024 by 2015-16 if no change is made.

Dr. Pierce informed the Rosa Parks and Wilder Elementary communities in October that a temporary boundary change would be put into place as a short-term solution to addressing the issue of the size of Rosa Parks.

The long-term solution to the increasing capacity issues in the district’s Redmond Learning Community is to build additional school(s). The district is working on developing a capital bond measure to put forward to voters in February 2014, which would include a new elementary school.  

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Correction Jan. 11: The number of students currently enrolled at Rosa Parks elementary has been corrected.