Historic preservation, worker housing considered for Bayview School property

A South Whidbey nonprofit organization is interested in further exploring the possibility of rehabilitation and redevelopment of a historic property on Bayview Road.

In June, Island Roots Housing presented the South Whidbey School Board with a proposal for the school district’s Bayview School property. Island Roots is seeking a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, that would allow the nonprofit to conduct inquiries, hire consultants and apply for funding for feasibility work that would determine future uses of the land.

These uses may include revitalizing the historic Bayview School building as a location for other nonprofit organizations and for-profit businesses that support families within the school district; maintaining and securing currently existing food production in the Big Acre, Good Cheer Food Bank’s garden; and creating congregate housing for seasonal or short-term workers associated with food production.

According to the proposal submitted by Rose Hughes, the managing director for Island Roots, the school district would retain ownership of the property, a long-term lease with Good Cheer for the Big Acre would be extended and a new long-term lease for Island Roots would be drawn up for the school building and the remainder of the property.

Goosefoot Community Fund staff have plans to vacate the building soon and the school board recently approved a short-term lease with another tenant to occupy the space. Last week, the board authorized Becky Clifford, the new superintendent, to create an MOU.

Hughes emphasized in an interview this week that it is still very early days for the project, which at this point is simply about seeing what is possible. Funding for historic preservation and housing is in a precarious position.

“This is a really horrendously challenging environment right now, for operations as well as capital projects,” Hughes said. “This is gonna be a real uphill climb, but we’d like to be able to lend our resources to help find solutions.”

As she explained, the MOU will lay out the role of Island Roots in doing this exploration of the potential for the land.

Housing is currently an allowed use on the property, which has rural zoning. Hughes acknowledged changes that Island County commissioners make to the comprehensive code this year could potentially impact the organization’s plans for housing in the area for workers involved in Whidbey’s food system, whether they be employed at the food bank or the school farm program.

Current code allows for one dwelling unit per five acres, though there are exceptions for group homes, overnight lodging and planned residential developments.

Long-awaited updates to the Bayview School would also play an important role in the project. At the meeting last month, school board members expressed interest in a multi-use building that would align with the needs of the district, such as a day care, a resource center or mental health offices.

“Our preliminary concept is that of a multi-agency, multi-use (potentially phased) project that would revolve around a programmatic theme that is education-adjacent,” Hughes wrote in her proposal letter.

Bayview School has a long history in the community, dating back to the early twentieth century. The first school on the land was a log building that doubled as the community hall, according to the Island County Historical Society. It was located between where the present schoolhouse is and where Bayview Hall was later built. The log schoolhouse was sold to a resident and moved to his place.

The current white schoolhouse on the property was built in 1904. According to a previous story in the South Whidbey Record, the school was used for more than 40 years until it was shuttered in 1942 in favor of a single kindergarten through eighth grade school in Langley.

After being consolidated with the Langley schools, it was used by the American Legion and then the South End’s branch of Skagit Valley College. According to a South Whidbey Record article from the ’90s, students recording their lectures in Room 209 reported hearing strange noises on the tapes that they attributed to ghosts of former Bayview students.

Most recently, from 1995 to 2012, the building served as an alternative high school for the South Whidbey School District. After the closure, the district moved students to its consolidated facilities on Maxwelton Road in Langley.

“It is a historic crossroads for the South Whidbey community, and we’d like to continue that and enhance it,” Hughes said.