From the Board of Directors to King County Executive
Dear
Executive Constantine:
On
behalf of the Board of Directors of the Greater Maple Valley-Black Diamond
Chamber of Commerce, I am requesting that Growth Management Planning Council "grandfather" 15 undeveloped school sites in the rural area for future school
construction. The Tahoma School District, which serves the greater Maple Valley
area, owns one of those sites directly adjacent to the existing Tahoma Junior
High School. With careful and
thoughtful planning, the district purchased that site to maximize the cost
efficiencies of transportation and administration associated with the co-location
of two schools.
School
districts must by law serve every child residing in their district. As community members and business owners, we
expect that our school district will operate its programs in a manner that is
not only equitable to all of our students, regardless of their address, but
also in a way that makes best use of limited public funding.
The Chamber Board of Directors believes existing
sites, which were purchased under current zoning regulations, should be
preserved for their intended use as school sites. We are dismayed that our
students' education may be compromised by King County's adoption of policies
that do not consider long-term education planning and programming, limited
school district resources, and taxpayer interests. We support the existing King County
Countywide Planning Policies authorizing schools to be built in the rural area
and to be connected to a tightline sewer because these policies work. They provide school districts with the tools
to plan effectively for our students' needs and they do not lead to growth. Schools are not built prior to growth;
schools are a response to growth.
Before the GMPC
takes action on the policies affecting schools, we urge you to analyze the
impacts of the proposed polices on public education and the taxpayers' interests. Thank you.
Added on 09/20/2011
Filed Under
Chamber Issues,
Legislative Issues by Chamber blog
