Pierce County school district buys land near ‘space-constrained’ high school
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Peninsula School District is buying a second house near Peninsula High School.
- The district will pay just under $660K out of its capital projects fund for the property.
- The district has been slowly acquiring property near the campus over the last two years.
The Peninsula School District is purchasing another house near the Peninsula High School campus this year, in a move that suggests the district is keeping its options open for expanding or upgrading the aging campus as it adds to a growing list of properties nearby.
The one-story, grayish-blue house at 6412 144th St. NW sits at the end of a gravel driveway, shaded by tall evergreens in its own clearing. The property is 1.46 acres, according to the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer’s office.
Just up the hill is a parking lot adjoining Peninsula High School’s tennis courts, aquatic center and baseball field.
The district will pay just under $660,000 to the seller, a private resident whose mailing address is in Lakebay, according to an estimated buyer’s statement attached to the school board’s meeting agenda for April 21. Director of Facilities Patrick Gillespie wrote in an email that the district is drawing on its capital projects fund, using interest earned on a 2019 bond and state match dollars through the School Construction Assistance Program (SCAP), to purchase the property.
It’s the second of two single-family homes the district is acquiring this year. The other is a neighboring property at 6422 144th St. NW. The district purchased the first house from Harborview Fellowship Church & Conference Center for about $490,000 in January, according to Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer records.
District administrators did not name specific plans for the properties when asked by The News Tribune.
“While no immediate use is planned, the District recognizes the strategic value of acquiring adjacent properties, particularly for space-constrained sites such as Peninsula High School,” Patrick Gillespie, the district’s Director of Facilities, wrote in an email. “Delaying such acquisitions could result in higher costs in the future or the potential loss of the opportunity.”
The district has been slowly acquiring property near the high school campus, starting with a purchase of about 20 acres in November 2024 for $6.2 million. School board president Natalie Wimberley told The News Tribune then that the district had been eyeing the land because of its proximity to existing district facilities, including Peninsula High School, Purdy Elementary, Roy Anderson Stadium and district offices, The News Tribune reported.
On March 31, 2025, the district purchased a rectangular parcel just under 5 acres along 65th Avenue Court Northwest for $260,000, according to Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer records.
District staff and consultants will evaluate the buildings for “possible future uses,” he wrote, and the district expects “a clearer determination” on whether to keep or demolish the buildings by the end of the year.
Chief Financial Officer Ashley Murphy told the school board in January that the district wanted to buy the first house “for some future school-level programming that would move some district-level programming on the PHS campus,” but the district has yet to release further details about its plan.
Pierce County classifies the parcels with the two homes as Residential Resource, which is a land use designation for low-density, single-family residential development. Gillespie wrote that the school district will explore a potential adjustment to their boundary line and a change in land use designation to Public Institution (PI). The Public Institution zone is meant for public-owned facilities and institutions, per the Pierce County code.
