Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled Enumclaw School District Superintendent Dr. Shaun Carey’s name. Additionally, ESD will be receiving the impact fee amounts listed in 2024, not this year. Finally, a proposal to further reduce impact fees has not been made official. The article has been updated.

With two failed bonds behind it, the Enumclaw School District has started conversations with Black Diamond’s Ten Trails’ developer Oakpointe about how to “creatively repurpose assets” to build a new school in the area.

The Enumclaw School District Board of Directors and Superintendent Dr. Shaun Carey updated the district’s citizens advisory committee, tasked with providing a recommendation to the school board regarding ESD’s facility needs over the next two decades, during a June 18 meeting.

“The Enumclaw School District Board of Directors has agreed to explore a partnership with Oakpointe to identify creative and alternative funding solutions for building a new school in Black Diamond,” district Director of Communications Jessica McCartney said in an email. “Our most recent meeting with Oakpointe has left us optimistic about the possibly of a solution that would not require a bond or levy.”

At the same time, the district released its 2024-2029 Capital Facilities Plan, which contains enrollment projections and school capacity needs, during the June 17 meeting.

According to ESD Director of Business Kyle Fletcher, the projections are just that — estimates, which are expected to be more accurate in the earlier years and less in the later years, which is why the district updates this plan annually at the end of the school year.

This year’s plan included new additional capacity based on the construction of a new Byron Kibler Elementary and an additional elementary school in Black Diamond. But with no bond, capacity projections appear a little grim, with elementary school capacity ticking up close to 100% full by 2029, and middle school surpassing capacity by that year.

Here are some more specific details.

INCOMING STUDENTS

ESD is expecting an influx of students in the next six years, especially from the Black Diamond area as more homes are built and sold in Ten Trails.

About 20 single-family units in King County tend to be built annually, and by 2029, could bring in an additional 62 students.

Enumclaw has ten single-family and multi-family units currently out of the permitting phase, and there are others still being permitted. By 2029, the district could see an additional 176 students from the city.

But with a possible 1,600 single family homes and 550 multi-family units (or more) in the Ten Trails area to be built and sold by 2029, ESD could see nearly 800 students from Black Diamond flow into local elementary schools.

In total, this would raise ESD’s total student count from 4,294 in 2023 to more than 5,300 six years later, a 24% increase.

Broken down into grades, K-5 enrollment could be more than 2,350; 6-8, more than 1,300, and 9-12, more than 1,600.

CURRENT AND FUTURE CAPACITY

According to Fletcher, school capacity is not only determined by the number of classrooms and the amount of chairs that can fit in a room — it’s also determined by the district’s level of service goals.

The district’s standard of service is based on best instructional practices, Fletcher said.

“In theory, school capacity could increase if class size ratios were increased,” he continued. “However, the trade off would be having class sizes that are not conducive to learning and students having less access to educators, interventions, and supports.”

The district must meet a 17 student to one teacher and education specialist ratio for K-3 because it’s legislatively required, Fletcher said, unlike the ratios for other grades.

For grades 4 and 5, the district aims to not exceed 26 students per educators.

And for grades middle and high school, 28 students to educators.

With those ratios in mind, total elementary school capacity is projected to creep up from 86% in 2023 to 98% in 2029, but that’s only if the district constructs new portables at Westwood Elementary.

It should be noted that Black Diamond Elementary is at capacity, and is bussing about 100 students to Westwood, which is also becoming full.

At the same time, Southwood Elementary has space for more students, but Fletcher said bussing students further south would affect student performance.

“The more time students spend on a bus, the less time they have to be engaged in other, meaningful activities,” he said. “… Longer bus rides can be more unpredictable depending on pickup timing or other road/traffic issues, which is not helpful for students seeking consistency and normalcy. Finally, in a neighborhood that should ideally have a school that all kids could walk to (Ten Trails), having to take long bus rides to/from school each day to the far side of the neighboring town would not be something that most families would feel good about.”

Without additional construction (two double portables are expected to be constructed at or moved to each school), the district’s two middle schools will exceed capacity by 8% with its projected enrollment by 1,300.

High school capacity is currently projected to reach 95% in 2029.

IMPACT AND MITIGATION FEES

There are two ways the district collects money from local developers.

The first is impact fees payed by developers when they build new single-family or multi-family units inside the district. These fees are normally used for small construction projects.

The second is mitigation fees, which are unique to Oakpointe developers. This money is collected for the specific purpose of buying land in the Ten Trails neighborhood for new schools.

Beginning in 2025, non-Oakpointe developers pay about $10,250 for every single-family unit built, and just over $5,600 for multi-family units. The actual impact fees set are double this, but the cities of Enumclaw and Black Diamond, as well as King County allow for a 50% discount to all developers.

I appears that the Enumclaw elected officials have discussed further lowering their impact fees for both single- and multifamily-units, but an official proposal has not been made at city council, according to Enumclaw City Clerk Jessica Rose.