MARYSVILLE — Marysville School District leaders will recommend the closure of Cascade Elementary School, Liberty Elementary School and Totem Middle School for the 2025-26 school year.
The district announced the “potential plans” on Friday in an email to Marysville families and staff. Leaders will recommend the school board close the three schools in a “consolidation” plan, the email said, citing declining enrollment.
Staff won’t lose their jobs, the email said. They “will follow students,” who “would be distributed to other schools based on feeder patterns and through potential boundary shifts.”
Marysville teachers union President Becky Roberts said staff at the affected schools found the prospect of the closures “heartbreaking.”
Since August, the struggling district has been in so-called “binding conditions,” meaning it must work with the state superintendent’s office and local educational service district to solve its budget crisis.
Earlier this month, the district submitted a financial plan to the state that included plans to close two schools. The district had not publicly named which schools it had in mind until the district-wide email Friday.
“This decision was not made lightly,” the email said, “but with educationally and financially sound thought processes.”
It added closures would only happen “after a year of planning and community opportunities to learn more about the process, including final approval from the school board.”
The district-wide email was sent out Friday afternoon.
On Marysville social media pages, some locals expressed frustration.
“It is a full circle problem,” one wrote. “Levies don’t get passed, district doesn’t get the money they need. Then people get pissed because the district doesn’t have enough money to do what they want.”
The school district has turned off comments on all of its new Facebook posts.
The next school board meeting is at 6 p.m. Monday at the district headquarters, 4220 80th Street NE.
Sophia Gates: 425-339-3035; sophia.gates@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @SophiaSGates.
Read More: 3 schools face closure in Marysville School District in fall 2025
2024-05-31 23:24:00