By Pat Jenkins
The Dispatch
Bethel School District officials who are hoping to build another high school to keep up with growing student enrollment received a helping hand last week in Olympia.
Governor Jay Inslee signed legislation that will allow school districts in Pierce County to build schools outside of government-designated urban growth areas. That means Bethel can continue its long-range planning for a new high school on land that previously was off-limits under the state's Growth Management Act.
The GMA, first adopted in 1990, discourages school construction outside urban growth areas as a way to control land development and accompanying population sprawl. House Bill 1017, which Inslee signed into into law April 26 after it was passed by the state Senate and House of Representatives, grants more flexibility in where school districts can build.
The relief applies only in Pierce County. Inslee vetoed part of the legislation that made the change available to school districts statewide. He said that would have allowed too much growth in rural areas.
Keeping the urban growth limitation in place in Pierce County would have prevented Bethel from building its fourth comprehensive high school on land the district owns outside the county's urban growth boundary.
Bethel superintendent Tom Seigel said the action in Olympia is a major victory for the district in planning for its future with a goal of adding another high school.
"We're going to need it," he said, noting the district expects to gain another 3,000 students in the next 10 years. Existing high schools already are overcrowded.
Building another high school will eventually require having district voters pass a bond measure. None is currently proposed. Last year, a $236 million measure was rejected twice by voters. It proposed expansions or remodeling of Graham-Kapowsin and Bethel high schools, building a new elementary school, and modernization or replacement of four other schools to help meet current and future enrollment.
But knowing the land the district owns in the Graham area can be the site of another high school is encouraging, Seigel said. An advisory committee is continuing its work on long-range plans for school buildings and other district facilities. A survey on the subject is open to the Bethel community at https://tsu016.thoughtexchange.net/bethelsd/TS/app/signup.
Three south Pierce County legislators – Reps. J.T. Wilcox and Andrew Barkis Sen. Randi Becker of the Second Legislative District – voted for House Bill 1017, which passed easily in the House (81-15) and the Senate (31-17).
Seigel and other Bethel officials, as well as officials from the Eatonville School District, were among school leaders who lobbied legislators for relief from the GMA's restrictions on school siting.
"We've been a proponent of change for many years and been persistent. Our legislators and (Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier, a former state senator) know the problem," Seigel said.
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