CALDWELL — The halls across Vallivue School District are filling up… fast.
"Sage Valley (Middle School) can hold 1100 students, and they’re knocking on the door of 1300 students and Vallivue Middle School, they’re ten students away from 1000, and that’s right at capacity," said director of community relations for Vallivue School District Joey Palmer.
Their district has grown more in the past year than the last ten combined, according to officials. Three elementary schools are overcrowded, and three others are almost there.
"Skyway (Elementary) is our newest school within the Vallivue School District, and it has the largest capacity to hold over 800 students but already in the third year of this school, we don’t have any classrooms in the building available, and we’ve already had to bring out portable classrooms," said Palmer.
Now, the district is also preparing for another influx of people from that amazon facility opening next year.
“They’re going to be adding about 1,000 new jobs, they sit right on the border of our district, so we imagine a lot of those people who get those jobs are going to move their families and homes into the Vallivue School District," said Palmer.
The most pressing concern is the middle school space. There are more students enrolled at Sage Valley Middle School than at Vallivue High School. To accommodate that need, the district says a third middle school is needed.
If all goes according to plan, this lot just north of 20/26 along Smeed Parkway could alleviate some of those growing pains, by being the future home of their third middle school.
“Teachers understand that all though they have large classrooms, help is on the way, and we’re going to be opening up that third middle school fall 2021, as long as there aren’t any obstacles that are difficult to overcome," said Palmer.
The new middle school will be able to serve 1400 students, which would help keep classroom numbers where they should be.
"Until the third middle school is built, we just keep bringing modulars into the campuses at Sage Valley and Vallivue Middle School," said Palmer.
