Opinion: Will there be parity at Ridgefield schools?

There are two schools on the ballot for bond funding on April 23 in Ridgefield School District. — File photo

Depending on how the schools are constructed, students may have dramatically different experiences depending upon which school they attend

Heidi Pozzo
for Clark County Today

There are two schools on the ballot for bond funding on April 23 in Ridgefield School District. Depending on how they are handled, students may have dramatically different experiences depending upon which school they attend.

Imagine you are ready to send your child to kindergarten. What will their experience be like?

The proposed K-4 school is slated to be 75,000 square feet for 600 students on a 27.36 acre lot with a full-size, lighted synthetic turf soccer field and a middle school size gym with 200-plus seating for games. It also has parking for 150 vehicles. At 125 square feet per student, the school is larger than the 90-square-foot state matching funds criteria.

The designs on the district’s website show plenty of space for play for both students and the community and updated classrooms.

Will the design for the 4^th elementary school be the same? Or will the 3^rd elementary have amenities that will only be included there?

In 2023, the district purchased the property for the envisioned 4^th elementary school near the intersection of NE 10th and NE 179^th. While this intersection will be closed off and NE 15^th will be constructed as an entry point, it is a high traffic location, adjacent to the I-5 freeway on and off ramps, and just on the other side of I-5 from the Clark County fairgrounds and amphitheater. With a logistics center being developed just down the road, 179^th is expected to be a busy truck route as well.

It is a curious location for a school, being about 600 feet from I-5. Many school districts attempt to avoid building schools next to highways for health reasons.

When purchasing property, an evaluation of needs should be completed prior to purchase to understand if the size and features of the property will be sufficient to build the envisioned school, even if it is not designed yet.

So, the district must know if it plans to build a comparable school with a similarly sized gym, soccer field and parking lot. The property is 9.399 acres and will lose some acreage to widen the two lane country road as a condition of development. Given the size of the parcel of land, loss for street expansion and setback requirements, it’s hard to tell if it is possible to fit all the amenities of the proposed 3^rd K-4 school into this one.

Will parents be concerned about sending their elementary school student to a school that may have fewer amenities than the 3^rd elementary school and is situated next to a highway?

Then there are the two existing elementary schools.

Union Ridge was built in 1952, with a second building added with the 2012 bond and South Ridge opened in 1960 and has a second building added with the 2012 bond.

What will parents think about having two new schools and two old schools? Will the old buildings be demolished and rebuilt once the 4^th elementary is completed?

How will parity be achieved?

Now, imagine your child is just about to move from 4^th grade to 5^th grade. Will they have a different experience depending on which middle/intermediate campus they attend?

For some, they will have access to the sports complex, but others won’t. Will that impact their development in sports?

What about the school itself? The district shared that there will be a dedicated wrestling room, band room, and choir room. But no black box theater. Instead, there will be a weight room.

It is a smaller site than the existing View Ridge/Sunset Ridge campus. Time will tell what will be the same and what will be different as designs are finalized.

Will parity be achieved between the locations? Or will the school experience be different in the two locations, leading to different trajectories for student development? You’re being asked to vote for a school without a commitment as to what will be included.

There’s a lot we don’t know. The district should share its plans. And if it hasn’t planned sufficiently, it should do so before asking for funding to assure parents and taxpayers that parity will be achieved.

Heidi Pozzo has been a Ridgefield resident for 16 years. She is a concerned citizen who would like students to get a good education and thinks we can do it in a more cost-effective way.

Depending on how the schools are constructed, students may have dramatically different experiences depending upon which school they attend

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