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North Thurston: District plans elementary school on 10-acre plot near Edgewater development

VENICE BUHAIN; The Olympian |
• Published October 29, 2009

LACEY – North Thurston Public Schools’ 14th elementary school will be in Hawks Prairie, the result of a purchase that was completed this week by the district.

The 10-acre elementary school property is near the Edgewater development, on the east side of Marvin Road Northeast, halfway between Willamette Drive and 44th Avenue Northeast. It was purchased for $615,000.

The school will not open until 2016 or 2017 at the earliest, said Shawn Lewis, assistant superintendent of administrative services. The district projects that a fourth comprehensive middle school will be needed in the meantime.

“There will be a capacity issue in the middle school in the next three years,” Lewis said.

The district already owns several potential new middle school properties, but no decision has been made about which will be developed first. That will be based on where the Lacey area experiences the most growth in the next few years.

“Our growth hasn’t been as significant as it has been in the past, but we’re still growing,” Lewis said.

In the 2008-09 school year, the district had about 14,000 students, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Edgewater is a neighborhood of 530 homes in the Hawks Prairie area, near Willamette Drive. The Greens at Edgewater is another relatively new housing development in the area.

In September, the district opened its 13th elementary school, Chambers Prairie, in the Horizon Pointe neighborhood, and a magnet middle school, Aspire Middle School. Aspire has a focus on the performing arts and contains the district’s advanced academics program for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.

Both schools opened in the southern part of Lacey.

“Now there are growth issues on the north side that we’ll have to address,” Lewis said.

Venice Buhain: 360-754-5445

vbuhain@theolympian.com

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