Record-setting winter delays anticipated project in Tacoma

Tacoma families can thank the incredibly wet winter for the school district unable to fulfill its promise of a new school in September.

Tacoma Public Schools announced the Wainwright Intermediate School will not be finished in time for the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

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“Due to the record wet winter combined with a supply and labor shortage caused by a rebounding regional economy, Wainwright will not be ready to move into until after school starts,” the district announced.

The fourth through eighth grade school had the potential to replace the Wainwright Elementary School up to one year early, according to information from the district in 2014. But our wet weather had other plans.

Records were set this winter as precipitation drenched the Puget Sound region. Between December and mid-February, a total of 22.78 inches of rain fell at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. That rainfall beat the previous record of 22.77 inches set in the winter of 1998 through 1999.

Between Oct. 1 and March 1, 38.22 inches of rain fell, according to University of Washington atmospheric professor Cliff Mass.

The Wainwright school will open no later than Jan. 3, 2017, according to the district. Because of the late opening date, fourth, fifth and sixth graders will have to attend Whittier Elementary.

“While this transition will be a temporarily tight fit, the intent is to keep the community together and eliminate the need to bus students to an alternate site,” the district stated.

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