In a unanimous vote of support tonight, the College Place Public School Board of Directors approved a $1.6 million land purchase of forty acres in College Place. The Board had been saving funds to secure the future site for some time while it worked on finding the right piece of land. The entire purchase of the land and all of the associated costs will be paid out of district savings and will not involve any added costs to local taxpayers.
The City of College Place and College Place Public Schools have continued to see significant growth and based on the city’s five-year plan is expected to continue and will largely surround the new site location. CPPS has seen an average of nearly 6% enrollment growth each of the past seven years and sees this continuing based on city planning, construction permits, and development plans. Superintendent Jim Fry said, “We have continued to see the growth in College Place because it is a very desirable location to live and raise a family. I am appreciative to the board for their diligent work in their planning for this growth and their prudence with state and local dollars to enable us to make this purchase without increasing local taxes. We will be positioned to be right in the middle of an area of significant growth with a beautiful new school in the future.”
The property is located approximately one-half mile southeast of the District’s current high school, middle school, district office site. The acreage, which is currently farmland, c be utilized by the district for athletic practice fields until the time that the district is prepared to build its next school. The district has already performed a number of pre-evaluative steps including an initial appraisal, water rights assessment, and access evaluation. The district expects that it may be ready for a new school proposal in the next 6-10 years.
“We have already added six new classrooms at Davis Elementary this year to support our enrollment growth and this land will give us some certainty for our long term planning. The growth will continue to come and we have been excellent caretakers of public funds and will continue to make sure we are doing the very best for the children and community of College Place,” stated CPPS Board Chair Mandy Thompson on the purchase.
The proposed property will have to undergo a very strict due diligence period evaluation to ensure that it will meet with all the state and local requirements for building a school in the future. The processes include conducting soil, engineering, geotechnical, wetland, and a myriad of other studies, which are set to begin immediately and could take up to four months. Additionally, the school district will need to work with other property owners to gain the needed easements for road access to the property. “We have done a lot to get to this point and have a lot of work to do before this done.” Fry said, “But, when it is, we will be well poised to handle the growth in College Place for years to come.”