On Nov. 10, the Northshore School District Board of Directors approved a purchase and sale agreement with Snohomish County to acquire the former Wellington Hills Golf Course as a site for future schools to address expected enrollment growth in the coming years and decades. This 104-acre site will provide much needed flexibility for the future of our district. Preliminary feasibility studies indicate that the Wellington site should accommodate at least two schools of any grade configuration that may be necessary in the future.

Last June, the School Board approved the recommendation of the Enrollment Demographics Task Force (EDTF) to begin planning for a new school to be built on property the district currently owns on Maltby Road. Funding for this new school will be included as part of the district’s 2018 bond measure. Should that bond measure be successful, we anticipate opening a new school on that site in 2020 to address continued north end enrollment growth. Based on the district’s current four-year bond cycle, the earliest a school may be considered for the newly purchased Wellington site would be 2022 or later.

Since Snohomish County purchased the Wellington site from the University of Washington in 2011, there has been much publicity surrounding objections of the Wellington neighbors and the city of Woodinville to Snohomish County’s planned use of that site for a sports complex. Snohomish County decided to pursue their sports complex at a different site, which made the property available for us to purchase. Unfortunately, the Wellington neighborhood group and the city of Woodinville filed new lawsuits against Snohomish County once the purchase and sale agreement was publicly announced.

Because of those lawsuits, our purchase agreement with Snohomish County was revised to require that the lawsuits against the County be satisfactorily resolved before the purchase would officially close. In the meantime, the purchase funds will be held in an interest bearing account, and in the event the lawsuits are not satisfactorily resolved to complete the purchase, the purchase funds will return to the district with the accrued interest. This provision of the purchase and sale agreement protects the interests of the district taxpayers while placing the property under contract with the district.

While the lawsuits are unfortunate, we are confident that they will be resolved enabling the sale to be completed. In future years as continued enrollment growth causes us to consider constructing schools on the Wellington site, we are committed to working cooperatively with all effected parties to address the impacts of new schools in new neighborhoods. Our recent experience with the construction of North Creek High School demonstrates our commitment and ability to be good neighbors and cooperative partners.

Larry Francois is the Northshore School District superintendent.