A new Covington Elementary School could open on a site near Kentwood High School as soon as fall of 2010.
The Kent School Board will review its options and decide what to do next, according to Fred High, assistant superintendent of business services for the Kent School District who said staff “will be making a report and recommendation to the board on this subject mid to late March.”
David Nemens, Community Development Director for the city, said the Kent School District has submitted permit applications for the location on 156th Avenue Southeast and Southeast 256th Street.
“The city has also submitted letters to our members of Congress and the state Legislature in support of the school district’s request for stimulus funds for the school construction,” Nemens said. “As far as the existing school goes we understand that the school district has formally surplused that property.”
School district documents show the estimated cost to build a new elementary is $27.6 million with few cost escalations expected if request for bids go out this spring.
The city would like the current Covington Elementary site, which is 17 acres, and the neighboring 20-acre vacant parcel owned by Ashton Development to be developed together as a mixed-use commercial and residential project.
For years, the district has been looking at moving Covington Elementary to a new site given the changing nature of the area surrounding it, which has morphed from a near empty state highway to a rapidly expanding commercial core.
The trick, explained Covington City Manager Derek Matheson, is that the school district owns the property and needs to make enough money when it sells it so that it can build a new school.
“The challenge here has always been that the Kent School District needs more than the appraised value for its property because they need enough money to build a new school at the corner of 156th and 256th,” Matheson told the Reporter in October. “We’ve always talked about strategies to make a development there work financially.
“The zoning there has allowed big box development and strip mall development but the council’s vision for the downtown has been a mix of retail, residential and office development with buildings up against the street with a public plaza; something that’s more urban, something that’s as enduring as possible.”
Meanwhile, district officials are trying to find funding, requesting money from the state, the federal government as part of the $800 billion economic stimulus package and possibly re-allocating about $13 million from a 2006 bond measure.
That’s a challenge High said the school board will have to consider because “funding is not looking particularly good.”
