Washougal School District purchases 31-acre parcel for future school site

The Washougal School District (WSD) is purchasing a 31-acre parcel of land in northeast Washougal for a future school site.

During its Oct. 22 meeting, the Washougal School Board approved a resolution authorizing the district to exercise an option agreement with Woodland-based Kysar Development, LLC, to purchase the property, located at 2400 S.E. 341st Court. The district will purchase the property for $1.025 million with funds collected through impact fees charged to new developments.

“This is a beautiful part of the district, and securing the 31 acres of land now lets us be ready for future growth in the community,” Washougal School Board President Sadie McKenzie said. “Board members have visited the site and concluded it will serve the district well in the future when we need it.”

The district entered into the option agreement to purchase the property with Kysar Development in November 2020.

“The current option agreement expires at the end of December, so it is time for the district to make this purchase,” interim superintendent Aaron Hansen said. “Purchasing the land at this time lets the district use the impact fee resources that are available now and restricted only for this type of use. This will allow the district to purchase the property while it is available and before the cost of the land goes up even further, which we have seen happen with other property.”

The school district’s most recent six-year capital facilities plan, adopted in 2022, identifies the property as needed for a future school. The plan states that the district’s “core facilities are sufficient at all schools except Hathaway Elementary School where the addition of three portable modular classrooms is beyond the capacity.”

The district is not planning to develop a school on the site during its current six-year plan period, but will address site development in “future plans,”according to a news release. Hansen said that the construction of a new school could be “10 to 15 years out.”

“The board is looking out decades, not for what we need next year,” board member Jim Cooper said.

The property is currently outside the Washougal Urban Growth Area (UGA) and cannot be used for school purposes until it’s included in the UGA.

“It is my understanding that that’s going to happen,” Hansen said.

Clark County and the city of Washougal are currently updating their comprehensive land use plans that must be completed by Dec. 31, 2025, as mandated by state law.

“Clark County and the city of Washougal, through adopted policies and planners’ statements, have demonstrated that each is supportive of including the property in the Washougal UGA by the end of 2025,” the resolution states.

Vancouver-based Jarvis Appraisal Co. established the fair market value of the property at $1.025 million in April.

“I do think it’s really important that we plan community messaging to go out, if we haven’t already, just to reiterate (the facts about) the land acquisition,” board member Jane Long said during the Oct. 22 meeting. “If we don’t tell the story and get the facts out there, people make up their own mind about things as they hear about stuff without (the proper context).”

District leaders have yet to determine what type of school will end up on the property, Hansen said.

“It absolutely is a wait-and-see,” he said, “but I can imagine this (property), 31 acres, that could be a middle school, that could be an elementary school, that could be a K-8. We’ve kind of compared those 31 acres to the Jemtegaard/Columbia River Gorge Elementary campus, fitting that campus on 31 acres, and it looks like that would work. That’s the direction we were going.”

The property is a good fit for a school campus in other ways as well, according to Hansen.

“It’s level, it provides quick and easy access, and it has proximity to our other schools,” he said. “We don’t have an immediate need for it, but we strongly believe that in the future, we are going (have a need), and that property is going to be much more expensive when we’re going to need it.”

The district has experienced an enrollment decline during the past several years, but projects enough of a bounce-back in the second half of the decade to necessitate a new school.

“You look at the growth in East County and in our neighboring school districts expanding to the north, we believe that’s certainly possible within Washougal as well,” Hansen said. “Even though there’s fewer students across the state, we believe that this is an area where people want to move to and want to live. The next generation of young families with children are moving into (the district), and we are seeing new developments in the city that we believe will result in additional students.