Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transportation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Resident urges district to move bus barn; Mount Si student describes two‑hour commutes at board meeting
Summary
During public comment at the Snoqualmie Valley School Board on Oct. 23, a Snoqualmie resident asked the board to fund relocation of the district’s bus barn away from a residential neighborhood. A Mount Si High School junior described lengthy bus commutes that she says separate students from their community and friends.
A resident and a high‑school student used the public‑comment period at the Snoqualmie Valley School Board meeting on Oct. 23 to press the district on transportation issues ranging from bus‑barn location to long high‑school bus rides.
Chris Burgess, who identified himself as a resident of old Snoqualmie, asked the board to include money in future facilities planning — specifically, a bond — to relocate the Snoqualmie Valley School District bus barn to a non‑residential area. Burgess said the facility now houses more than 60 buses and creates repeated early‑morning, afternoon and occasional late‑night industrial vehicle noise that disrupts neighborhood life. He described engines, repeated air‑brake releases, reverse beeping, horn use and diesel exhaust that sometimes prevents the household from opening windows. Burgess also said district parking for staff overflows onto neighborhood streets and suggested the original bus‑barn site was intended for fewer than 20 buses and is now approaching three times that size.
"This is our home and the place we come to after a hard day of work to relax and feel secure," Burgess said. He asked the board to consider a facilities bond to relocate the fleet to a nonresidential site so the neighborhood could regain residential serenity and the district would gain a site with room for expanding transportation needs.
A second commenter, Mount Si High School student Catherine Dillingham, described the consequences of student‑assignment boundaries that route some families to far‑away schools. Dillingham said she lives in Sammamish, has attended private school but knows classmates forced by boundary realignments to travel to Mount Si. She described a hypothetical 6:30 a.m. bus pickup and a two‑hour daily roundtrip commute for students and said the travel time made it impractical to participate in school life and extracurricular events. Dillingham said the change also separates students from peer social networks concentrated in their home communities.
Board response: The board thanked both commenters. No formal action or vote was taken during the meeting on either topic; board members and staff acknowledged the transportation concerns and later discussed facilities funding and levy planning in a separate work session.
Why this matters: Transportation placement and student assignment have direct effects on families’ daily lives, neighborhood quality‑of‑life and student access to school events. Requests to relocate a bus barn would carry significant capital cost implications and would typically require facilities planning and voter approval of a bond or other funding mechanism.
What the record shows: The resident said the bus barn was originally sized for fewer than 20 buses and now holds more than 60. The student described a potential 6:30 a.m. bus pickup and a two‑hour roundtrip commute as examples of the burden of long routes. The board did not vote on either subject during the Oct. 23 meeting.
