Bellingham Building New School in 2007
The Bellingham School District will begin construction of a new elementary school off of Yew Street Road here in 2007 with the goal of completing the project for fall classes of 2008. The funds for the new elementary school will come from the $67 million dollar bond that passed last March by Bellingham area residents. The bond will also cover building improvements for other schools in the Bellingham School District.
Prior to the opening of fall classes in 2008 the Bellingham School District staff and community members will review the boundaries for all elementary schools and make the necessary boundary changes. The new elementary school and reworked boundaries will relieve pressure from neighboring elementary schools. There have been a lot of new homes built off of Yew St and the Lake Padden area over the last ten years, adding many more school age kids to the district.
The Bellingham School District also has plans to build a new elementary school in the Sudden Valley area, but still has to purchase the necessary property. That will take a lot of pressure off of the Geneva Elementary School down the road and allow the Sudden Valley children to be closer to home.
Lowell Elementary will have improvements done during the 2008-09 school year requiring the district to come up with an option for Lowell area kids for the entire year. The school district would prefer to keep the kids together and add them to a school for the 2008-09 school year. Since the new elementary school off of Yew St. will be ready for fall classes in 2008, I wonder if that would be the districts solution for Lowell Elementary kids.
The $67 million dollar bond money will also fund structural improvements for earthquake safety at Larrabee and Columbia elementary schools and Whatcom Middle School this summer. The Bellingham School Board also agreed to rebuild Shuksan Middle School on the west side of the Shuksan site, keeping the current school as a temporary transition space. The new Shuksan Middle School will open no earlier than fall 2009.