Hockinson district seeks bond with 90% of funds dedicated to elementary school

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The largest elementary school in Clark County will be headlining a bond going out to voters in the Hockinson School District next month. 

The Hockinson Bond 2025, which aims for more space and safer schools, would address overcrowding, traffic congestion, lunch-time logistics and portable classroom use. Hockinson Heights Elementary School, with 924 students, is the largest in the county and is nestled on a hill above Hockinson’s center. It has issues with long bus rides from corners of the district as well as traffic congestion during drop-off and pick-up times. The bond proposal would build a second elementary school to solve overcrowding issues, and it includes safety and facility improvements at all Hockinson school locations. 

“We have quite a few students and a large staff, and so that creates some unique challenges for us,” Hockinson Heights Elementary School Principal Meredith Gannon said. “About a third of our students are in portable classrooms, and they spend a good chunk of their day just kind of walking between buildings to get from their classroom to specialists or their classroom to the lunchroom.”

Gannon added that the lunch schedule is an additional challenge to the overcrowding at Hockinson Heights. With seven grades and roughly 150 students at each grade level, the school offers lunch beginning at 9:50 a.m. all the way through 12:45 p.m. Gannon added that each lunch is 30 minutes long. 

With so many students, a large staff has allowed class sizes to maintain a steady number. Kindergarten through second grade has classrooms of 20 or fewer students, while third, fourth and fifth grades have between 20 and 30 students in each class, Gannon said. 

Although staff can accommodate needs, the campus cannot, especially with security, Gannon said. 

“Another important thing that the bond would fund is safety upgrades here at the elementary school. So, right now, we don’t have the capability to remotely lock down our classrooms or to trigger a lockdown from a remote location,” Gannon said. “So the only place we can do that is right out here in our main office, and obviously we want our campus to be as safe as possible, so the new bond would pay for that remote lockdown capability, the capability to message our teachers so that they would get a visual that, ‘hey, we’re in a lockdown situation.’ ”

At the elementary campus, improvements would include enclosing a lot of areas currently open to the elements. 



“Our kids are out walking through the rain, and they’re outside when they are walking so far across our campus,” she said. “So enclosing that would give it a little bit more safety and security.”

As well as current campus improvements, a whole new elementary school would be built at a site near the Hockinson Meadows Community Park, Gannon said. The new elementary school would house 50% of the student population and will cut down on busing time for students who live on that side of the district. The elementary school staff would be split between the two schools, the district website states. 

“Just having that smaller student population would allow us to streamline lunches, provide increased supervision, and then that new campus would also have the same security features that this campus would get,” Gannon said.

The bond, slated for the Feb. 11 special election, if approved, will collect $87.75 million across the maximum of 21 years. The previously approved bond will decrease this year and will be paid off by 2035, the district’s website states. With existing bond debt, the district website states that taxpayers will pay approximately $2.03 per $1,000 of assessed property value. 

The estimated additional cost per month for a $750,000 home would be $42.50, the district states. 

For more information, the school district is offering a bond informational meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 16, at Hockinson High School and a bond open house at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, at the Hockinson High School library. 

To learn more, visit hocksd.org/bond2025