Plans Complete

Hello All

First off, want to say that we are sorry it has been so long between updates. Unfortunately, this stage of the new school process involves a lot of waiting around while permits and plans are filed and reviewed.  The good news is that there is now progress to report on both the Woodinville and Canyon Park schools.

Before the progress update, a little back story. When we signed leases for the two new schools, everything was scheduled so that they would open about a year apart. First, Canyon Park would open in late 2023 and then Woodinville a year later. As it is now almost 2024, you will not be surprised to learn that the schedule did not pan out. Canyon Park was delayed and delayed while Woodinville, very unusually, started early.  

So now, we have something like twins happening. We love them both equally and can't imagine life without them, it was just unexpected that it's happening at the same time. And just like parents with twins on the way, we are busily preparing for the moment they arrive.

Reminder, if you have friends that would be interested in enrolling a child in either of the new schools, please let them know they can sign up on this page. Interest has been very high, particularly in the Canyon Park school and we will be offering spots to families in the order they signed up. If they are interested, they should sign up soon.

And now, on to the updates

Woodinville

We recently sat down with our architect to review every detail of the plans for the new schools (see image at right). We are working with the property owners to finalize all of the details of our plans and those will be complete and submitted to the city by the end of next week. This will ensure there is plenty of time for the city to review and approve everything by spring of next year when we can start construction on the interior elements of the school. Yes, three to six months is typically how long it takes cities just to approve plans for construction.

The Woodinville school will be very similar to the Bothell school. IT will have lots of light with giant windows in every classroom and the play area will also be partly covered by the building. This has the advantage of providing shade in the summer and cover from the rain and snow in the winter. And like all of our schools it will have a complete kitchen where all of the children’s meals will be made from scratch by one of our own amazing chefs!

As you may have seen earlier, the larger Eastrail Flats development in which our school will be a part has started construction and is moving along well. Concrete has been poured and they have already laid down the in-ground plumbing lines for our school. If you want to see the building progress, there is a live webcam for the project from the developer:

Eastrail Flats - New Mixed-Use Coming to Woodinville Spring 2025 (eastrailflatswoodinville.com)

Canyon Park

While the Canyon Park school is a little behind the Woodinville school in terms of progress, it should move much faster once it gets going. It is a standalone building created specifically for our use and is simple in comparison to a mixed use development like Eastrail Flats in Woodinville. The property owner's plans have been approved by the city and they are selecting a contractor to construct the building. Like the Woodinville school, we will be submitting our plans early to make sure there is plenty of time to get them approved. They will be sent in around the same time as the Woodinville school.

Because this is a standalone building, we have a bit more space to work with both inside and out. This school will have our biggest outdoor area ever—a massive playground with tons of space for your kids to run and get their wiggles out. We look forward to sharing more details of what everything will look like in the future

That’s the extent of the updates for now. We know that it seems like not much has happened—the pace of these build-outs are agonizing for us. We are eager and ready to go but we have to wait for the physical infrastructure to catch up with our excitement. Still, we want to make sure we are communicating with all of you and making sure you are in the loop, even if it’s just minor updates. Soon, things will be moving faster and we will have more progress to report on. The next step will be for us to select a contractor to build each of the schools and then work out smaller details like colors, finishes and furnishings. The fun stuff!

Best

Natalie