Edmonds school board approves fall 2028 boundary adjustments

Published 3:11 pm Wednesday, October 28, 2026

EVERETT — The Edmonds school board voted 4-0 on Tuesday to approve changes to its school boundaries for the first time in nearly three decades.

A district committee has been studying boundary changes since the beginning of the year. The changes aim to balance enrollment across the district and will go into effect in fall 2028.

All board members in attendance voted to approve the changes. Board President Nancy Katims was absent.

The new map creates an attendance boundary for the district’s new middle school, Salish Middle School, which is scheduled to open in fall 2028. With the new school, the district is also moving sixth grade from elementary to middle schools. The map will ensure that each elementary and middle school has a balanced number of students, school board members said.

Currently, 16 of the district’s 24 elementary and middle schools will be above their functional enrollment capacity by 2031, while some schools are at less than 70% of capacity, according to district data. Under the new boundaries, only six schools would be over capacity.

More than a dozen parents spoke during public comment, many saying the felt their voices hadn’t been heard during the decision process. An additional 15 people submitted written public comments. The comments mostly came from families at Hilltop, Sherwood and Seaview elementary schools.

At Sherwood, some students are set to attend four schools in four years due to construction, parents said. The new map also splits nearby neighborhoods into three different schools.

“My son has attended Sherwood since kindergarten,” Kelsey Reeves said. “Under the current proposal, instead of finishing his elementary school years alongside his classmates, teachers and community he grew up with, he would graduate with students from Westgate that he has never gone to school with at a temporary school location.”

Seaview parents raised concerns that the boundary changes will send some students to Lynndale Elementary, even though Lynndale would be closer to reaching its capacity under the new plan.

At Hilltop, a neighborhood of about 150 families will be moved to Hazelwood Elementary. Parents say the district is unnecessarily moving their children to a school with worse academic performance, when many families chose the neighborhood because of Hilltop. In spring 2026, around 85% of Hilltop students performed at foundational grade level or above on standardized testing, compared to about 66% at Hazelwood, according to the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

A group of Hilltop parents is exploring legal counsel to review the boundary changes, parent Srinath Kotela said during public comment. The group alleges that the district is violating its boundary changes policy, which states that “to the extent possible,” the district will minimize disruption of students’ learning programs, maintain or improve curriculum and maintain established neighborhood groupings.

“After months of outreach, our voices have not been meaningfully heard,” Kotela said. “Our concerns remain unanswered, and there is no transparent feedback loop process.”

Some parents said they had proposed alternative maps to the board. Others urged the board the delay the decision or make it so current students will finish elementary school at their current schools.

On Tuesday, school board director Thom Garrard said that about 14% of elementary school students will be reassigned under the new boundaries.

“By enacting this plan now, we allow district staff a year and a half to plan for how to make this transition as smooth as possible for all of those students,” he said.

Full maps of the boundary changes are available on the district’s website.

Jenna Peterson: 425-339-3486; jenna.peterson@heraldnet.com; X: @jennarpetersonn.