Clover Park School District holds public hearings on proposed consolidation of five small school codes

Clover Park School District held a public hearing April 14, 2025, on a plan to reorganize five small school codes, including the district's middle- and high-school reentry programs, Oak Grove Elementary (school code 601), Oak Ridge Group Home (603) and the special-education ReLife program (604). Assistant Superintendent Kevin Rubrik presented the district's proposal and said the changes are intended to simplify state accountability reporting and to consolidate services under existing school codes.

The district presented the same legal and operational rationale for each item: OSPI (the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction) is implementing a supplemental accountability system for schools that lack sufficient student-level assessment data, and the district must schedule closures or reorganizations in the next OSPI directory review in May to be exempted from certain supplemental accountability designations. Rubrik cited district policy 6883 and RCW 28A.335.020 as the authority that requires the board to hold a public hearing at least 90 calendar days before a final board decision on school closure or reorganization.

Rubrik described the two reentry programs as long-standing separate school-code entities created more than 25 years ago to provide education for students on long-term suspension or expulsion. The middle-school reentry program is currently operated at Gravelly Lake K‑12 Academy; the high-school reentry program operates at Gravelly Lake K‑12 Academy as well. The proposal would discontinue the separate reentry school codes and instead assign students to newly created course codes in the district student information system (Skyward). Placement into those interim alternative educational settings would require approval from the assistant superintendent for secondary schools and the executive director of special education, and students would receive services either through the Gravelly Lake program or another alternative designated location. Presenters said staffing for the reentry programs comes from basic education and special education funding and that the reorganization "would not impact the services" delivered to students.

The district proposed to merge Oak Grove Elementary (601) and Oak Ridge Group Home (603) into the Firwood School code (602). Presenters said Oak Grove and Firwood enroll students residing in the child-study treatment center cottages and in hospital wards, and that Oak Ridge Group Home serves adjudicated students in partnership with Western State Hospital. The district's recommendation is to place students formerly enrolled under the separate 601 and 603 codes under Firwood School (602), which the presenters characterized as a PK‑12 entity whose annual action plan would meet the supplemental accountability requirement.

For special-education services, the district proposed retiring the ReLife special-education school code (604) and merging those enrollments into the Alpharetta School administration (presenters also referenced Lakes High School and nonpublic agency placements). The presentation said some district students may be served through Puget Sound Educational Service District programs or nonpublic agencies; home-hospital and running-start FTE would be managed under the receiving school-code structures.

District presenters repeated that the consolidations are administrative and are intended to streamline reporting to OSPI; they stated the changes would not change the services delivered to students. The presentations noted that the separate school codes were created more than 25 years ago and that consolidating them now would meet the criteria for the OSPI directory review in May.

Board members held no formal vote at the hearing. The district solicited public comment after each presentation; the transcript records no in-person or remote public comments for any of the five items. The hearing concluded at about 5:03 p.m.; the regular board meeting was scheduled to reconvene at 6 p.m.