The Bellingham School District Board of Directors unanimously adopted a Management Action Plan at the Oct. 8 meeting to reopen Lowell Elementary School in fall 2010 and balance student enrollment and staffing at nearby Larrabee and Happy Valley elementary schools.
Please click here to view details of the plan.
Students living in the Lowell attendance area will attend Lowell in fall 2010. Please click here to view the elementary school attendance areas that were adopted by the School Board in 2007. (Students living in the yellow, pink and purple shaded areas on the map are in the Lowell attendance area.) Parents/guardians may request that their child attend a school outside of their attendance area through the district's regular transfer process outlined in policy and procedure 3131/3131P: Student Attendance Area Transfers.
Lowell was temporarily closed for seismic retrofitting work and its reopening delayed for one year as part of last year’s Budget Savings Plan. The School Board approved additional improvements to Lowell while the building is closed this school year. These improvements include interior and exterior painting, as well as repairs to the brick mortar joints — cutting out deteriorated mortar between the bricks on the exterior of the building and filling with new mortar — to prevent damage from moisture and prolong the useful life of the building. This work is currently in progress.
"Our district and School Board wanted to plan to reopen Lowell as soon as our economic outlook would allow," says Acting Superintendent Sherrie Brown. "We have a clearer picture now of our budget situation for next school year, having recently settled multi-year bargaining agreements with some of our larger labor associations. Based upon the most recent state economic forecast for next school year, we currently anticipate the need for continued budget reductions for 2010-11. However, our School Board is making the commitment to reopen Lowell, to keep all of our current schools open in 2010-11, and find the budget savings elsewhere."
Later this month in preparation for the 2010-11 budget process, the district will gather feedback from students, families, community members and staff about last year's Budget Savings Plan process. Using that input, the district will update its budget savings process and begin planning this fall for reduced state revenue in order to balance the budget for 2010-11.
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