Realignment FAQ

Yes. Surrounding districts, such as Bellevue and Issaquah saw significant enrollment declines after the pandemic. Districts across Washington are seeing the effects of declining births. Other districts have already started or will be starting a process around school closure/consolidation.

The average student generation rate for multi-family apartments is approximately .069 students per unit or seven students for every 100 units.  A single-family development generates approximately .746 students per home or 75 students for every 100 homes.

See the Six-Year Capital Facilities Plan for more details.

Our demographer does take into account historic migration (net in or out) within neighborhoods. While not specific to immigration, trends are included in the forecast.

While it is true that the district has had to reduce our budget as enrollment declines and costs continue to increase, our district has maintained class sizes and even been able to reinvest funds back to classrooms and other areas that are a priority for families.

The projections of birth rates continue to show level birth rates or small increases in births – so we are not expecting significant increases in kindergarten enrollment through the 10-year period.  You are correct, if there were a significant change in number of births, we would see that start impacting our kindergarten enrollment five years later.

The district’s long-term enrollment projections are within 1-2% of actual enrollment. A 1% margin represents about 300 students district-wide or about 5 students at an elementary school or 22 students at a high school. These margins are reasonable for a district of our size. The longer the time frame, the harder it is to be accurate. 1-3 year projections are more accurate than projections in the seven to 10-year range.

The community passed construction levies to rebuild our aging schools such as Rockwell and Alcott Elementary providing updated and modern learning environments for students and staff. Levy funds were also approved to provide classroom additions on Redmond and Eastlake High School to provide capacity needed for the current enrollment.