Residents from a handful of Sammamish neighborhoods want their children to attend the Lake Washington School District, instead of the Snoqualmie Valley School District, according to Lake Washington School Board documents.
The Lake Washington School Board formally recognized the petition Oct. 10 and began the process of negotiating whether to transfer a piece of the Snoqualmie schools’ territory into the Lake Washington schools.
The neighborhoods, Devereaux, Trails at Camden Park, 26th Street, 27th Place and a few houses along 244th Avenue Northeast, lie at the northeast corner of Sammamish. The surrounding neighborhoods currently send their students to Lake Washington Schools, but youths in those neighborhoods attend school in the Snoqualmie Valley district.
Lake Washington was notified of the petition March 25, but because two of the neighborhoods were split on their desire to transfer, citizen petitioners had to revise the proposition, school board documents said. On Sept. 10, the Lake Washington School District received the new, validated petition.
The two districts have 90 days to negotiate an agreement, but can ask for a 30-day extension, which is likely with the holiday season coming up, Jackie Pendergrass, Lake Washington board president, said at the Oct. 10 meeting.
Pendergrass and Doug Eglington, the board member serving northern Sammamish, volunteered to represent Lake Washington in the process. It is unclear who will represent Snoqualmie Valley schools, but Joel Aune, Snoqualmie’s superintendent, knows about the petition, board documents said.
When negotiating a territory transfer, members will consider factors like the affected students’ educational opportunities, their safety and welfare, geographic accessibility, and the history and relationship of the property affected to the students and communities affected. The group will also consider how the transfer will affect — negatively or positively — each school district, including through increased transportation costs (Lake Washington) or decreased tax revenue (Snoqualmie Valley).
If both school boards agree on the next step, be it to transfer the land or not, then that decision is what happens. If the boards disagree, the decision goes through an appeal process at the regional level, and could possibly end up in the court system, though that is rare.
In 2009, the Broadhurst neighborhood, in unincorporated King County north of Sammamish, made the same request.
In that case, the transfer was denied when the school boards found that it would hurt the Snoqualmie district more than it would help the Lake Washington district.
Christopher Huber: 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.
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