Pasco schools to pay millions for farmland, eyes it as new site for growing district
Pasco now has two spots where they could put its new high school.
School district leaders agreed recently to a $6.6 million land deal that will give the district about 80 acres of property on Burns Road near Road 68.
The deal is still in the process of being finalized, school officials said.
The deal gives the school district a second piece of property large enough for a new high school or several smaller schools. The land sits near a future residential housing development, according to Franklin County Assessor’s Office records.
“The board will decide how the land will be used,” said Shane Edinger, the district’s director of public affairs.
There was no public discussion about how the property would be developed when the school board agreed to buy it earlier this month.
The money for the purchase was part of the district’s $99.5 million bond approved by voters in November 2017. The same bond paid for a new middle school, two new elementary schools and rebuilding Stevens Middle School.
The district is buying the property — about half of an irrigated agricultural circle — from Pasco farmer Fred Olberding.
New west Pasco high school
The district already owns 76 acres between Road 100 and Dent Road, which has been the focus of discussions about a future third high school.
The planning process for another high school started this summer with a group of community members and parents getting together to start looking at what space the new school would need.
School district leaders appear to be preparing to ask voters to approve another bond in November 2020 for the project. The school board has been meeting throughout the fall to discuss what would be on the bond and when it might go to voters.
The district is hoping to ease overcrowding at Pasco and Chiawana high schools.
The district predicts that by August 2024, those schools will have 2,100 more students than they have space for — enough to fill a new high school, according to a study commissioned by the district.
This story was originally published December 24, 2019 at 5:00 AM.