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New BSD middle school opening delayed by another year

Parents of elementary school age children can’t anticipate that their children will have a new middle school to go to until 2021 now, as Beaverton School District announced in late January that they will continue to use the new building in the Timberland area as a “swing school” for students whose schools are being rebuilt around the district.

Instead of opening the school in 2020 to relieve overcrowding in its middle schools, district planners decided to spend two years rebuilding the Arts & Communication Magnet Academy (ACMA) because of construction costs.

District spokesperson Maureen Wheeler says, “The District made the difficult decision to extend the time for construction beyond a single school year in consideration of the project's size and complexity. Current market conditions and local labor shortages with the recent passage of neighboring district construction bond measures and continued high demand for commercial construction in the region are challenging the District's ability to attract bidders, maintain subcontractors to provide this pace of work, and get the best value for bond dollars.”

The district also blames the delay on permitting and other local government issues. Wheeler continues, “In addition, time requirements for various jurisdictions to complete design review, permitting and inspections will continue to be significant in this construction market. Preliminary City of Beaverton review indicates more extensive road work will be required at (the ACMA) site introducing a significant time factor.”

She shared the current schedule for schools that will occupy the new middle school at Timberland while their schools are built or renovated:

• In 2018-2019, Rachel Carson 6-8th graders (Five Oaks Middle School program) and William Walker Elementary students will share the school.
• In 2019-2020, ACMA students and 6-8th grade students from Raleigh Hills will share the school.
• In 2020-2021, ACMA students will be at the new middle school for a second year.
• In 2021, ACMA students will move back into their new school
• In 2021-2022, the new middle school will open for middle school students.

We asked, “What will be done to accommodate middle-school students in the NE quadrant? You are already putting out provider letters saying you can’t serve middle school students in our new development areas (the large new Bonny Slope West development, for example).”

In response, we were told that a middle school boundary process will take place in the next year to realign attendance boundaries for all BSD middle schools. They added, “The District will continuously monitor enrollment and capacity at all schools and may, from time to time, take additional actions to manage enrollment and capacity issues.”

Wheeler adds, “Sufficient space currently exists at Stoller Middle School to serve the northern part of the District. A two-classroom portable on-site is currently being used for storage. This summer, the District plans on placing another two classroom portable on-site. The District believes that through our student enrollment projections and the amount of classroom space at Stoller, there will be sufficient capacity to accommodate the modest level of student enrollment projected for Stoller Middle School.”

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