Bethel School District: ‘Our schools are full’ – Overcrowding demands boundary changes

Bethel has been experiencing a population boom in the last decade, including 717 new students who have joined us in the last two years alone.

“We last opened up a school in 2009,” said Superintendent Tom Seigel. “Our schools are full.”

With all the new construction in our community, Seigel expects to be adding students at a rate of 300 a year for the next decade.

A Boundary Review Committee has been tasked with easing that overcrowding by creating new school boundaries, which will be implemented next year.

“The last couple of times we did this, we had new schools coming on line,” said Assistant Superintendent David Hammond. “This time, we don’t.”

Voters have failed three bond attempts in the last three years that would have built new schools and renovated and expanded old ones. Without the money from a passed School Construction Bond, there isn’t a ready-made solution. That’s why the task before the Boundary Committee is so critical.s

More information is available at www.bethelsd.org/boundary