Puyallup School District is officially in the market for buyers of Riverside Elementary School, which was closed in 2007 because of declining enrollment.
The district hopes to sell the 6.42 acres at 5515 44th St. E. off River Road.
“I’ve sent out just shy of 50 letters to Realtors and other entities in the district that have expressed interest in properties in the past,” said Rudy Fyles, the district’s executive director of facilities. However, the district has yet to receive any offers.
The School Board could authorize Superintendent Tony Apostle to sell the property as early as its next regular meeting on Dec. 14, although Fyles said that was unlikely. The farmland around the school can’t be developed into housing because it lies in a lahar zone and floodway.
Under state law, the district must give a 45-day notice announcing its intentions before moving to sell; Friday was the earliest date that the board could have acted to surplus and sell the land. A public hearing on Nov. 9 yielded no objections, according to district records.
Riverside Elementary opened in 1956 as part of a separate Riverside School District, which joined the Puyallup School District in 1962. Due to stagnant growth and aging households in the area, enrollment at the kindergarten-through-sixth-grade school dropped from a peak of 377 in 1991 to a projected 45 the year it was closed.
“It does have a history; there’s no question about that,” said board President Greg Heath, who remembered playing intramural sports at Riverside as a fifth-grader in the 1960s. “It’s a nice building. It’s been maintained well.”
However, he said, “right now, there isn’t much use from a district standpoint for the building.”
Currently, the former school houses the district’s audiology lab for hearing testing and the Child Find program, which offers free developmental screenings once a month for children ages 3 to 5. The district also uses the site to hold meetings and train new teachers. If no buyers emerge, the district will keep the programs at the site, Fyles said.
Joyce Chen: 253-597-8426
joyce.chen@thenewstribune.com
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