So why do we need to do this?
It's a valid question - why do we need to build a new school and expand others?
The short answer is EXPLOSIVE POPULATION GROWTH in the Sultan School District (our newest school is 30 years old)!
Click on the image below to open the gallery to see some examples of how crowded our educational spaces have become over a short period of time.
30%+ growth in 3 years
It's no surprise to anyone paying attention: Sultan and the surrounding area are growing! Every trip up Sultan Basin seems to reveal a new housing development.
Population growth = more kids
More houses, more people...more kids! Our schools are bursting at the seams.
As you can see from the graphic, Sultan Elementary far exceeds its designed capacity. SES is capable of serving 416 students. For the 22-23 school year, they are serving 623 students. Everything is stretched to their breaking points!
Enrollment projections paint an alarming picture.
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More kids in Gold Bar, too!
Gold Bar Elementary also is serving more kids than it was designed to handle. The building and its facilities are designed to serve 256 students. The 2022-23 school year has 330 students enrolled at GBE. The projected enrollment in the next few years makes a bad situation worse.
Sultan Middle is feeling the pinch, too
The Middle School is also feeling the squeeze with all of the extra students. Currently, it's at it maximum capacity, but projections for enrollment over the next few years show an upward trend - far exceeding the designed capacity of the facilities.
New houses in both Sultan
& Gold Bar
As you can see from the Residential Development Table, the Valley isn't done with growth yet. Approximately 260 houses are scheduled to be built in Sultan and almost 40 houses in Gold Bar. Over 300 new homes are going to be built over the coming months. It almost a certainty that a majority of those homes will bring more children into the District.
Enrollment projections on the rise
As you can see from the chart, the district enrollment is project to rise significantly. There are three separate forecasts - Low, Middle & High. We're expecting reality to fall somewhere in the middle, but it could turn out to be lower or higher depending on a number of factors.
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The bottom line is - growth is coming, regardless. Even if the growth is on the low-end we'll still have almost 100 more students by 2032. On the high-end, it could be as much as 600+!