Overview
For more than a decade, the District has been working in partnership with the City of Black Diamond and Oakpointe to plan for school facilities and projected enrollment growth in the Master Planned Development that includes Ten Trails. Earlier agreements secured school sites and mitigation funding within the master planned communities so that new schools could be built as neighborhoods develop and enrollment grows.
Following the failure of the February 2023 bond that included funding for new school construction, Oakpointe, the master developer of Ten Trails, approached the Enumclaw School District in Fall 2023 to express concern about school capacity and the need for an elementary school in the growing Ten Trails community. The district began working with Oakpointe to explore alternatives to a bond using existing agreements and assets and to revisit the original and amended agreement to better align land and funding with current needs.
At the recommendation of a citizens advisory committee, the district continued negotiations to amend the Comprehensive School Mitigation Agreement and received board approval to contract a feasibility study, which confirmed that a new elementary school in Ten Trails could be built within the negotiated funding amount on the Ten Trails school site.
A Formal Three-Party Agreement
Those negotiations resulted in a formal agreement between the Enumclaw School District, the City of Black Diamond, and Oakpointe. On November 24, 2025, the Enumclaw School Board unanimously approved Resolution 1152: Amended and Restated Comprehensive School Mitigation Agreement.
Under the approved First Amendment:
Property exchange to fund school construction: The District will release its interest in a large school site within the Master Planned Development in exchange for $40 million to build the new elementary school.
Additional financing with limited repayment: Oakpointe will finance up to an additional $25 million, to be repaid only through future mitigation fees owed to the District. If those mitigation fees total less than $25 million, any remaining balance will be fully discharged and the District will not be required to repay it.
Play field funding: Oakpointe will provide $3 million to construct two play fields.
In total, the district will receive up to $68 million in exchange for our property asset and mitigation fee credits to build an elementary school in Ten Trails. This model avoids new taxpayer funding and preserves local control of the project.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
This amendment reallocates mitigation assets already within the agreement and establishes a secure funding structure to design and construct a new elementary school on the Ten Trails Elementary Site A, without the need for a bond or tax increase for our taxpayers. This allows the District to move forward with the construction of a new elementary school in the Ten Trails area of Black Diamond.
NEXT STEPS
The District has begun the process of selecting a design/construction team for the new elementary school.
Progressive Design Build (PDB) model: PDB is a project delivery method where the District selects a single team that includes both the architect/designers and the construction contractor. The team collaborates with the District to develop the design and budget together, in phases, rather than hiring a designer first and then bidding the project to contractors later.
This allows for better cost control and an expedited timeline (approximately two years after implementation).
Why we are able to use this model for this project: State law and OSPI rules now allow school districts, under certain conditions and approvals, to use alternative delivery methods like progressive-design-build for complex projects. For this project, those conditions are met, which gives us access to a delivery model that better fits the schedule and cost needs in Ten Trails.
Planning/Design work will begin in January 2026.
The District will share project updates as milestones are reached, including design development, projected timelines, and ways for families and community members to provide input as they become available.
LEARN MORE
To learn more, please visit our project webpage: https://www.enumclaw.wednet.edu/page/esd-elemetary-6-ten-trails-elementary