Yelm Community Schools Superintendent Alan Burke

YELM BLOG READERS KNEW OF YELM SCHOOLS EXPANSION PLANS MONTHS AGO!

The Nisqually Valley News reported on September 12th:
“Yelm Community Schools has a plan to deal with a continuing population boom.

Approximately 90 more students than last September enrolled in school this year.

More accurate population counts are taken in October, when movement of students has steadied.

Last October, the district counted 5,345 students. Counts this month show the district has 5,386, but that number seems to be increasing.

Schools Superintendent Alan Burke estimates the school district will need to expand facilities in 2012.

The high school can be added to on the east side of the campus, where portables currently sit. Those portables could be moved to elementary schools or middle schools, and a few elementary schools would be renovated.

Lackamas and Southworth elementaries are the two schools in greatest need of repair or restructuring, Burke said.

Burke speculated that an additional elementary school may need to be built…

The school experiencing the most rapid growth is Southworth, with an estimated population increase of about 50 students this year.

The growth is apparently related to the availability of new, affordable housing in the Tahoma Terra development Burke said…

Cadero [Southworth Principal Lisa Cadero] agrees that Tahoma Terra is probably the biggest reason for the population increase.

One day, she said, the Tahoma Terra school bus was too full. An additional trip had to be made to get all of the students home…

One teacher teaches two grades with the help of a part-time teaching assistant.”

The Mayor’s growth initiatives & the City of Yelm’s “planned growth” are now displaying havoc created with school bus overcrowding, teachers teaching two classes and strained facilities?
Planning? Applications for building 1,800 homes the last 3-5 years + accepting an application on another 5,000 homes in a city of 5,000 people is planned growth?
Area property owners should expect more requests for taxes to build more facilities in the next couple of years, on top of levies!

Schools Superintendent Burke mentioned a targeted 2012 expansion date when he penned this story for Yelm Community Blog readers in March of this year.