Auburn School District No. 408
915 4th Street Northeast, Auburn, WA  98002

 09/17/02

NEWS RELEASE
Citizens Study High School Overcrowding
Ad Hoc Committees' Update

Last spring, sixty volunteer Auburn citizens joined together and worked through the summer to make recommendations concerning the overcrowding at Auburn School District’s two large high schools.  The volunteers formed two separate citizen ad hoc committees with two different objectives.

Committee #1’s objective was to review recommendations made by the previous 1985 and 1995 ad hoc committees to determine if those original decisions regarding a new high school are still valid.   Committee #1 divided into three sub-committees to further study those original decisions, enrollment and capacity, and financing options.  This committee also gathered information including a new high school’s design; graduation requirements and programs; bond issue financing; and overall growth in the community. 

Committee #1’s next meeting is Thursday, September 19, in the District Administration Building Board Room at 7 p.m.

Committee #2’s objective was to make recommendations to accommodate high school growth over the next ten years without a new high school.  Both Auburn and Auburn Riverside High Schools have more students than any high school in King County with Auburn High School having the most in the entire state.  Enrollment is increasing with 600 more students projected in next four years. 

Committee #2 divided into four major study areas looking at the impact of growth on programs, facilities, schedules, and special programs.  “There are no easy answers,” said Teresa McFadden, committee co-chair.  “So far, all of the options we’re looking at are painful in some way.”

Each recommendation is being weighed against guidelines set by the committee.  These guidelines include safety, diversity, cost, quality programs, transportation, student opportunities and more.  “The situation is forcing us to look at double shift schedules and reducing instruction time, not to mention lost opportunities for students,” McFadden said.

The next Committee #2 meeting is Wednesday, September 18, in the District Administration Building Board Room at 7 p.m. 

The two citizens committees will make their recommendations to the Auburn School Board on Monday, October 28.