The Enumclaw School Board decided it will continue to pursue a land transfer from the Tahoma School District to Enumclaw and formally submit a petition to the Puget Sound Educational Service District. Tahoma received a letter from Enumclaw March 4 informing the district that Enumclaw would be continuing to pursue the transfer.

The land in question is an approximately 54 acre portion that is zoned for commercial use in the master planned developments of YarrowBay, according to the Tahoma School District. No students reside within the parcel of land.

The local educational service district, a regional agency that provides support and services to school districts, oversees the process of adjusting school district boundaries. Puget Sound ESD 121 is the district that services Tahoma and Enumclaw and the regional committee on school district organization will oversee the petition process.

Both Tahoma and Enumclaw will complete a transfer of territory checklist, in which they can detail reasons for opposing or supporting the transfer, that will be submitted to the committee along with Enumclaw’s petition. The next steps are mediation between the districts facilitated by the ESD, and if they can’t come to an agreement then there will be a public hearing in the committee.

The ESD received the petition from Enumclaw on March 4 according to ESD spokesman Peter Daniels. Daniels said that the timetable for transfer petitions varies.

“The goal initially is to mediate,” Daniels said. “It seems both, with Enumclaw being for and Tahoma being against, are firmly camped in their positions.”

After both districts are notified by the ESD they will have 90 days to meet and try to negotiate the transfer.

“The goal is to try to have, at the lowest level, the districts reach an agreement,” Daniels said.

Reach Katherine Smith ksmith@maplevalleyreporter.com or 425-432-1209 ext. 5052.