Is Tahoma School Biggest In State? -- Lake Wilderness Elementary Packed

The children at Lake Wilderness Elementary School start arriving just after the fall sun peeks above the nearby housing developments.

By 9 a.m. they are at their desks - all 1,162 of them.

There are nine first-grade classrooms in the school. There are seven kindergarten sessions, four in the morning and three in the afternoon. There are 11 portables with three more on the way. There are 55 teachers and two social workers. There are two gyms, two libraries, two stages and not enough bathrooms.

Welcome to what may be the largest elementary school in the state.

``The way things are going we are going to be crowded for some time,'' said Tahoma School District Superintendent Ed Heiser. The district's next elementary school isn't scheduled to open until the fall of 1992.

Based on preliminary figures yesterday, it looks as if Lake Wilderness has a good chance to supplant Orchard Heights Elementary School in Port Orchard, Kitsap County, as No. 1 in enrollment.

Orchard Heights, which had 1,120 pupils last year, is down to 945 this year, said Carol Reid, office coordinator for the school. It lost 175 pupils to two new elementary schools that opened in the South Kitsap School District.

The state superintendent of public instruction's office said final enrollment figures for the state's schools won't be tabulated until later this year but did not know at this time of a higher enrollment than Lake Wilderness'.

Lake Wilderness Elementary is so large that Associate Principal Gordon Fisher, new this year, still gets lost. But class sizes are respectable, says Principal Wes Bredin. They range from 23 to 27 pupils, he said.

Still, it's tough ``to keep from bumping into each other,'' said Fisher.

Katy Sible, 7, a first-grader who likes math and

reading and has plenty of friends, said ``there's barely any places to sit'' when she eats in the lunchroom.

And when she plays at recess, there are ``too many kids.''

Falishah Jordan, 10, moved into a new house in Maple Valley several months ago from Longview, Cowlitz County.

``It's a lot bigger and it's not as strict,'' said Falishah, a fifth-grader, comparing her new and old schools. She added she found Lake Wilderness Elementary to be more friendly.

Judy Denney said her 9-year-old twins, Meaghan and Mike, don't mind their fourth-grade portable classrooms. Drinking water there used to be scarce, but Denney said parents got the district to bring in bottled water this year.

``The area is just growing too quick and I just wish there had been better planning by King County,'' she said. ``If it's like this now and going to keep growing as people move in what's going to happen next year?''

But Denney gives the administration high marks for doing the best job it can.

Because of the crowding, Heiser said the district is now asking land developers in the area to pay voluntary impact fees. One developer recently agreed to pay the district $980 a lot on 125 lots where houses will be built.

But Heiser said the Tahoma School Board wants a lot more than the $19,600 a developer offered to mitigate the effect of 170 apartment units slated to be built across from the Maple Valley Post Office.

The money collected from developers goes into a capital projects fund to pay for land for new schools, school construction, and new portable buildings that cost about $35,000 apiece, said Jock McNaughton, school district business manager.

Much of the growth is centered around the Lake Wilderness area. Two of the larger projects are the Elk Run development, where 150 houses have been built so far, and Lake Wilderness Golf Course Estates, which has an equal number of new houses. More are planned.

Mike Balasa, a member of the Greater Maple Valley Area Community Council and director of research and testing for the school district, said 2,000 to 3,000 homes are proposed or under construction in Maple Valley.

But migration isn't the only reason for the sudden influx of students. Balasa said there has been a steady upward spiral the last five years in births in King County.

School population in the district is up about 7 percent from a year ago, when Lake Wilderness was the second biggest elementary school in the state with 1,038 pupils.

The district has 3,861 pupils in five schools, including two other elementary schools.

Lake Wilderness Elementary, which has two preschools and a day care on campus, was built for 850 pupils.

Bredin, who came to Lake Wilderness four years ago after the school had been remodeled, said one of the biggest problems is planning ahead. ``No one really knows in August how many people are going to get off the bus and come to school.''

Now, since homes are being constructed and occupied year round, pupils show up not just in September but throughout the year, he said.