Q: What can you see from Grand Avenue Park in Everett?
A: Grand Avenue Park offers sweeping views of Port Gardner Bay, the Olympic Mountains, Whidbey Island, and Naval Station Everett’s marina. The 5-acre City of Everett park sits on a bluff at 1800 Grand Ave, features a paved ADA-accessible trail, and connects to the waterfront via a pedestrian bridge. Open 6 a.m. to dusk, free.

There is a five-acre park in Everett where you can stand on a paved trail, look west, and see Port Gardner Bay, Whidbey Island, the Olympic Mountain range, and Naval Station Everett’s marina all at once. In May, when the mountains are still snow-covered and the water runs that particular deep gray-blue, it’s one of the better views in the city.

Most Everett residents haven’t been there.

Grand Avenue Park at 1800 Grand Ave sits on the bluff above Marine View Drive in the Port Gardner neighborhood — one of Everett’s most historic corridors. The park is listed as a Viewpoint facility by Everett Parks & Recreation, open 6 a.m. to dusk, and free to visit. It’s five acres of landscaped, paved walking trail with benches, grass, and one of the most genuinely satisfying overlook experiences in the city.

The reason most people haven’t been: the turn off Grand Avenue isn’t obvious, the park doesn’t have large signage from the main routes, and it sits in a neighborhood that most drivers pass through rather than stop in. That’s worth correcting.

What You’ll Find at the Park

Walk into the park from the Grand Avenue entrance and you’re immediately on a paved, landscaped trail. The trail curves along the bluff edge, with several overlook points where benches face west toward the Sound. The views open up as you walk north: Port Gardner Bay, the marina below, the Port of Everett’s working waterfront, Whidbey Island in the middle distance, and on clear days the full ridge of the Olympic Mountains across the water.

Below you, Marine View Drive runs along the base of the bluff. The Port of Everett’s waterfront complex — Waterfront Place, the marina, the working piers — is visible directly below. It’s the kind of vantage point that makes the scale of Everett’s waterfront make sense in a way that walking along Marine View Drive doesn’t quite capture.

The park is 5 acres. It doesn’t have a sports complex — it’s a viewpoint park, designed around the overlook experience. There are grassy areas for sitting, benches at the overlook points, and a paved surface that’s ADA accessible and open to cyclists.

At the north end of the park, a pedestrian bridge crosses Marine View Drive and connects directly to the waterfront on foot or by bike. This is one of the practical reasons the park deserves more attention: it makes the bluff and the waterfront part of the same trip, rather than two separate destinations requiring a car move.

A Park Since 1906

Grand Avenue Park has been part of Everett’s parks system since 1906 — one of the city’s oldest park properties. Port Gardner, the neighborhood it sits in, is the original center of Everett — the landing point where the city began in the early 1890s. The bluff the park occupies looks out over the same bay that Vancouver charted in 1792 and that early Everett settlers considered the defining geographic feature of the place they were building.

The park was established as a viewpoint during the period when Grand Avenue was first built out as a residential street for Everett’s founding families. The overlook function has been consistent throughout: this has always been the spot where people come to look at the water. Northwest Everett’s historic core sits just a few blocks east, and the visual connection from the park down to the waterfront the early settlers built is as clear today as it was 120 years ago.

When to Visit

May and early June are the best months for the view. The mountains are still carrying their winter snowpack, the air is clear between rain systems, and the late afternoon light turns the bay silver. It’s not warm enough to stay all day, but absolutely worth a morning or afternoon stop.

Weekday mornings are the park at its liveliest — ferry traffic on the Sound, marina activity below, Port of Everett operations visible in the working waterfront. If you want the park with a backdrop of actual Everett activity, early morning on a weekday delivers that.

Weekday midday is quiet. The benches are open. The trail is uncrowded. You can have the overlook largely to yourself, which is either a feature or a bug depending on what you’re after.

Getting There

The park address is 1800 Grand Ave, Everett, WA 98201. From downtown, head north on Rucker Avenue and turn west onto Grand Avenue — follow Grand all the way to where the bluff begins. Street parking is available along Grand Avenue.

The park is classified as a Viewpoint facility on the City of Everett’s parks system. Hours are 6 a.m. to dusk, year-round. No admission fee.

The Pedestrian Bridge

The Grand Avenue pedestrian bridge at the north end of the park crosses Marine View Drive and connects to the waterfront level below. It’s ADA accessible and open to cyclists. This is the practical detail that makes Grand Avenue Park a genuine starting point for a longer outing rather than just a viewpoint stop.

From the park, you can cross the bridge, walk the waterfront complex, and return via the pedestrian access — a loop that’s probably two to three miles depending on how far you extend it along Marine View Drive or into the marina area. It’s almost entirely paved and connects to one of the more active sections of Everett’s waterfront.

How It Fits With Everett’s Other Parks

For families exploring Everett’s outdoor spaces, Grand Avenue Park sits comfortably in the same conversation as Howarth Park (south Everett, beach and forest trails), Thornton A. Sullivan Park at Silver Lake (east, disc golf and lake access), and Langus Riverfront Park (north, wildlife estuary trail). Each is a different experience — Grand Avenue is the one with the panoramic bay view and the bridge to the waterfront.

It’s also the most central. For anyone based downtown, in Port Gardner, or in northwest Everett, this park is close in a way that the others aren’t. You don’t need to drive to a trailhead. You walk to the end of Grand Avenue and you’re there.

A Simple Case

Open 6 a.m. to dusk, 365 days a year. Free. ADA accessible. Five acres of paved trail on a bluff above the water, with views that most cities would charge admission for. A pedestrian bridge to the waterfront. Benches. A grassy area. Established in 1906.

If you’ve lived in Everett for years and somehow missed this park, May is a good time to go find it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Grand Avenue Park in Everett?
Grand Avenue Park is located at 1800 Grand Ave, Everett, WA 98201, on the bluff above Marine View Drive in the Port Gardner neighborhood. Open 6 a.m. to dusk daily.

What can you see from Grand Avenue Park?
The park offers panoramic views of Port Gardner Bay, the Olympic Mountains, Whidbey Island, Naval Station Everett’s marina, and the Port of Everett waterfront complex below the bluff.

Is Grand Avenue Park ADA accessible?
Yes. The park features a paved, ADA-accessible trail throughout. The Grand Avenue pedestrian bridge — which connects the park to Marine View Drive and the waterfront — is also ADA accessible and open to cyclists.

Is there parking at Grand Avenue Park?
Street parking is available along Grand Avenue. The park does not have a dedicated parking lot.

How do I get from Grand Avenue Park to the Everett waterfront?
The Grand Avenue pedestrian bridge at the north end of the park crosses Marine View Drive and connects directly to the waterfront level. It’s open to pedestrians and cyclists and is ADA accessible.

How old is Grand Avenue Park?
Grand Avenue Park was established in 1906, making it one of Everett’s oldest park properties.

How big is Grand Avenue Park in Everett?
Grand Avenue Park is 5 acres, featuring a paved walking trail, overlook benches facing Port Gardner Bay, grassy areas, and a pedestrian bridge to the waterfront at the north end.

Is Grand Avenue Park free?
Yes. Grand Avenue Park is a City of Everett public park with no admission fee. Hours are 6 a.m. to dusk year-round.

Q: What does the Boys & Girls Club of Snohomish County offer in Everett?
A: The Everett Boys & Girls Club serves nearly 1,000 members ages 5–18 annually with before and after school care, summer camp, STEM programs, fine arts, sports, teen programs, and the Power Hour homework help program. In 2026, the organization is celebrating its 80th anniversary.

When the Boys & Girls Club of Snohomish County opened its first club in Everett back in 1946, the city looked very different. Boeing was still ramping up after World War II. Everett was building its future. And a group of community members decided that kids needed a safe, positive place to spend their time outside of school hours.

Eight decades later, that same conviction is still the engine of the organization — and the Everett Club is still one of the most active in the county.

In 2026, Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County is celebrating its 80th anniversary. It’s a milestone worth understanding, because a lot of Everett families still don’t know what’s inside that building — or how accessible it is to get their kids enrolled.

The Everett Club: What It Is, What It Does

The Everett Boys & Girls Club has been at its current location since 1965 and serves nearly 1,000 members every year. Members are kids ages 5–18. The programs span a wide range: before and after school childcare for working families, summer camp with all-day activities, STEM programming, fine arts classes, sports leagues, and specialized programming for teens.

The Power Hour homework help program is one of the most popular offerings — structured academic support during the after-school hours when kids are most likely to fall behind. For families navigating Everett’s strong academic environment — including the Everett School District’s record 96.3% graduation rate — after-school structure makes a real difference.

The club’s three core pillars — Academic Success, Healthy Lifestyles, and Character and Leadership Development — aren’t just marketing language. They’re the framework that shapes how programs are designed and how staff measure outcomes.

The South Everett/Mukilteo Club extends the organization’s reach into the southern part of the city, serving families closer to Casino Road and the Mukilteo School District boundary. Between the two Everett-area clubs, the coverage across the city is substantial.

Turning 80 in a County With 27 Clubs

Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County now operates 27 clubs across the county — Everett, South Everett/Mukilteo, Lake Stevens, Marysville, Arlington, Lynnwood, Edmonds, Granite Falls, and more. But the Everett Club holds a particular distinction: it was the first.

In 1946, when this organization was just getting started, Everett was the entry point. The 80th anniversary the organization is marking throughout 2026 carries that history. For families in Everett who have been sending kids to the Club for generations, this anniversary year has a specific resonance.

Summer 2026: Registration Is Open Now

Summer 2026 programming is now available for enrollment. The summer camp program offers all-day care with activities, special guests, and weekly themes — which makes it one of the more practical options for working parents who need full-day coverage during June, July, and August.

Unlike school-year programming, summer camp is structured to keep kids engaged across a longer day. Themes rotate weekly, activities include both indoor and outdoor programming, and the Club’s staffing model ensures kids are actively doing things — not just being watched.

Summer slots fill faster than most families expect. Registration is online at bgcsc.org.

What It Costs — And Who It’s For

Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County is structured to be accessible to families at a range of income levels. The organization actively fundraises and seeks sponsorships specifically to keep membership fees from being a barrier. If cost is a concern, it’s worth asking — the Club has mechanisms to help.

This is not a private enrichment program for one demographic. The Club’s entire model is built on serving kids who need it most — kids who benefit from having somewhere structured, safe, and run by adults who know what they’re doing during the hours between school dismissal and when a working parent gets home. It’s the same mission that drives organizations like Housing Hope and Cocoon House in Everett — a community that has a long history of building infrastructure around young people who need it.

That mission has not changed in 80 years.

How This Connects to Everett’s Bigger Picture

The Everett School District posted a record 96.3% graduation rate. The Cascade High IB program is drawing families from across south Everett. EvCC and WSU Everett are within reach for teens thinking about what comes after high school. The Mukilteo School District is investing heavily in its south Everett service area.

The Boys & Girls Club fits into this ecosystem as connective tissue — the place where kids build the habits, relationships, and confidence that make those next steps more likely to land. Academic success doesn’t happen in school alone. The Club is one of the few organizations in Everett specifically designed to fill the after-school hours well.

Getting Started

Both Everett-area clubs are part of Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County, with unified registration at bgcsc.org/clubs/everett and a social presence through their Facebook page and @BGClubsSC on X.

Eighty years in, the Club is still one of the best investments available to Everett kids and families. Summer 2026 registration is open. If your family hasn’t walked through the door yet, this is a good year to start.

Frequently Asked Questions

What ages does the Boys & Girls Club Everett serve?
The Everett Boys & Girls Club serves members ages 5–18 through before and after school programs, summer camp, sports, STEM, Power Hour homework help, and teen programming.

Is there a Boys & Girls Club in South Everett?
Yes. The South Everett/Mukilteo Club serves families in the southern part of the city, including areas near Casino Road and the Mukilteo School District boundary.

How much does Boys & Girls Club membership cost in Everett?
Membership fees are kept low by design. The organization actively raises funds to keep the Club accessible. Current pricing is available at bgcsc.org or by contacting the Everett Club directly.

Is summer 2026 registration open at the Boys & Girls Club?
Yes. Summer 2026 registration is open at bgcsc.org. The summer camp program offers all-day care with weekly themed activities and special guests.

What programs does the Everett Boys & Girls Club offer?
Programs include STEM, Power Hour (homework help), fine arts, sports leagues, teen programming, before and after school childcare, and summer camp — organized around Academic Success, Healthy Lifestyles, and Character and Leadership Development.

When was the Boys & Girls Club of Snohomish County founded?
The organization was founded in 1946 when the Everett Club became the first club in Snohomish County. In 2026, Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County is celebrating its 80th anniversary.

How many clubs does Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County operate?
As of 2026, the organization operates 27 clubs across Snohomish County, from Everett and Lake Stevens to Arlington, Marysville, Lynnwood, Edmonds, and beyond.

Everett Public Schools Summer 2026: Your Complete Guide to What’s Available, What’s Free, and What to Register For Right Now

**What summer learning programs does Everett Public Schools offer in 2026?**

Everett Public Schools runs four primary summer programs in 2026: the High School Summer Academy (July 6–24 in-person at Eisenhower Middle School; June 22–July 30 online), the Everett Ready kindergarten transition program in August, i-Ready online academic support for K–8 students, and Middle School Summer Programming for foundational skills. Most in-district programs are free. Online high school courses carry a tuition of $350 per half credit for in-district students.

School is still in session, but summer 2026 is already underway in one sense: Everett Public Schools opened registration for its summer programs back on March 9, and for some of them — including the Everett Career Link paid internship program — the window is already closed. If you have an EPS student and haven’t looked at this yet, now is the moment.

Here’s what’s available, who it’s for, and what it costs.

High School Summer Academy: Credit Recovery, Acceleration, and Real Support

The anchor program for EPS high schoolers is the High School Summer Academy, which runs two tracks:

In-person track: Classes run July 6–July 24, 2026, held at Eisenhower Middle School. These are primarily credit recovery courses — designed for students who need to retake a course or pick up a credit they’re short on before the next school year. In-district students pay no tuition for in-person credit recovery. Support is available for Multilingual Learners and students with IEPs.

Online track: Classes run June 22–July 30, 2026. These include both credit recovery and acceleration options. Tuition is $350 per half (0.5) credit for in-district students; $450 per half credit for out-of-district students. Online courses are scheduled for students who want to get ahead or who have scheduling conflicts with the in-person session.

Both tracks include practical support: free breakfast and lunch are provided for all students in in-person sessions, and transportation is available from several pick-up sites across the district. For families managing complicated summer schedules, that combination of free meals and provided transportation removes two of the most common barriers to actually showing up.

The Summer Academy is the district’s primary mechanism for keeping students on track for graduation — and for Cascade High students working toward IB requirements or other multi-year academic pathways, it’s also a tool for strategic course completion. If your student needs a specific credit before September, this is the fastest path to getting it done.

Middle School Summer Programming: Building the Foundation Early

EPS also runs Middle School Summer Programming designed to support students who need to solidify foundational academic skills before the next year begins, as well as students who want to accelerate into more advanced coursework.

This is worth paying attention to: middle school is when academic trajectories often set in ways that follow students into high school. Students who enter 9th grade with a strong foundation in math and literacy are statistically better positioned for the four years ahead. EPS’s middle school summer option exists precisely to help students get to that starting line in better shape.

Details on specific middle school session dates and locations should be confirmed directly at everettsd.org/summeropportunities, as enrollment and scheduling are managed through the district’s main summer hub.

Everett Ready: Kindergarten Is Closer Than You Think

For families with children entering kindergarten in fall 2026, EPS runs the Everett Ready transition program in August. This program is designed to help incoming kindergartners build confidence, develop familiarity with the school environment, and practice the routines that make the first weeks of school go more smoothly — for kids and parents alike.

If you have a child who has never been in a structured school setting, or one who is anxious about the transition, Everett Ready is a low-pressure way to make the start of kindergarten feel less like a leap. The program runs before the school year begins, which means students arrive in September having already met teachers, seen their classroom, and practiced the basics.

This one is first-come, first-served in terms of interest — if you haven’t reached out to your elementary school about Everett Ready, do it soon.

i-Ready: The Online Tool That Works All Summer

For students in kindergarten through 8th grade, EPS uses i-Ready as an online learning platform that supports continued academic progress through the summer. i-Ready is an adaptive tool — meaning it adjusts to each student’s level — and it works in both math and reading.

This is not an assigned summer homework load. i-Ready works best when students are using it consistently, even briefly, to keep skills activated over a summer that can otherwise function as a long academic reset. The data on summer learning loss is real: students who don’t practice over a long break often start September behind where they finished June. i-Ready is the district’s lightweight, low-friction response to that problem.

If your student has an EPS login, they should already have access to i-Ready. If you’re not sure how to access it, your student’s school can confirm credentials.

Everett Career Link: One to Watch for 2027

Everett Career Link is EPS’s partnership program with Snohomish STEM, the City of Everett, and regional employers that places students in real workplace environments — learning what a specific job actually looks like, building professional skills, and earning high school credit in the process. Think of it as a structured paid or credit-bearing internship program designed for high schoolers before they graduate.

Summer 2026 registration for Career Link is now closed. The window for Summer 2027 opens in January of next school year. If you have a high schooler who is career-curious — especially one interested in aerospace, healthcare, public administration, or manufacturing — Career Link is worth flagging now so you don’t miss the January window. The program fills up.

Why Summer Learning Matters for EPS Students This Year

Summer 2026 arrives with some specific context for EPS families. The district is in the middle of a platform transition — Naviance is being replaced by SchooLinks as the state’s mandated college and career planning tool, with the change taking effect September 2026. Students who use Career Link, Summer Academy, or any EPS college-prep pathway this summer will be among the first to navigate that transition on the new platform.

Everett Public Schools’ graduation rate reached a record 96.3 percent in 2025, and Cascade High hit 96.6 percent specifically — numbers that reflect a district genuinely committed to getting students across the finish line. The summer programs are part of the same infrastructure: they exist because the district has decided that summer is not a gap to manage around but a resource to use.

You can review the full suite of summer options at everettsd.org/summeropportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions About EPS Summer 2026

When does the High School Summer Academy run in 2026?

In-person sessions run July 6–July 24, 2026 at Eisenhower Middle School. Online sessions run June 22–July 30, 2026.

Is the High School Summer Academy free?

In-person credit recovery is free for in-district students. Online courses are tuition-based: $350 per half credit for in-district students and $450 per half credit for out-of-district students. Free breakfast and lunch are provided during in-person sessions.

What is Everett Career Link?

Everett Career Link is a partnership between Everett Public Schools, Snohomish STEM, the City of Everett, and regional employers that places high school students in real work environments for experiential learning and high school credit. Summer 2026 registration is closed; Summer 2027 registration opens in January.

What is Everett Ready?

Everett Ready is an August transition program for students entering kindergarten in the fall. It familiarizes children with school routines, their classroom, and their teachers before the school year begins.

What is i-Ready?

i-Ready is an adaptive online learning platform for EPS students in grades K–8 that supports summer reading and math practice. Students with active EPS logins can access it independently over the summer.

Where can I find all EPS summer program details?

The official hub for all Everett Public Schools summer programs is everettsd.org/summeropportunities, which is updated as sessions approach.

Power in Unity: Casino Road’s Diverse Communities Come Into Focus During AAPI Heritage Month 2026

**What communities make up Casino Road in South Everett?**

Casino Road is one of South Everett’s most culturally diverse corridors, home to significant Vietnamese, Cambodian, Filipino, and other Pacific Islander and immigrant communities. During May’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, those communities and the organizations that serve them offer a template for what “power in unity” actually looks like in a working-class neighborhood.

May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month — and this year’s national theme, “Power in Unity: Strengthening Communities Together,” reads like it was written with Casino Road in mind.

South Everett’s Casino Road corridor has never been a neighborhood that waits for outside recognition to celebrate its own strength. It does that continuously, through the restaurants, cultural organizations, faith communities, and neighbors who have built a genuine place here over decades. But Heritage Month is worth pausing to mark, because the communities along Casino Road reflect exactly what the theme describes: a corridor where different cultural communities share space, share resources, and have built a collective infrastructure of mutual support that outsiders rarely see clearly.

Who Lives on Casino Road

The Casino Road neighborhood in South Everett has one of the highest concentrations of immigrant and refugee families in Snohomish County, with approximately 25 percent of residents being first-generation immigrants according to community planning documents on file with the City of Everett. The community includes significant Vietnamese, Cambodian, Filipino, and other Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander populations, alongside Mexican, East African, and other communities who have made this stretch of Everett home.

That diversity doesn’t exist in silos. What’s distinctive about Casino Road is that the communities here have overlapping needs, overlapping institutions, and a growing tradition of showing up for each other across cultural lines. That’s the “unity” part of this month’s theme made concrete.

The Village on Casino Road: Where Community Actually Gathers

At the center of Casino Road’s community infrastructure is The Village on Casino Road, operated in collaboration with ChildStrive and the Connect Casino Road initiative. The Village’s history on this block is long — it traces back to 1963 and the founding of the Little Red School House, which expanded operations to Everett in 1988. ChildStrive purchased the building in 1998, and beginning in January 2019 the Community Foundation of Snohomish County began leasing the facility to develop it as a community hub.

Construction happened in two phases: Phase 1 in August 2019, Phase 2 beginning that November, with the full hub opening in March 2020.

Today, The Village brings together more than two dozen community organizations to deliver services that the neighborhood’s most vulnerable residents need most. On Tuesdays, the space hosts fun activities and playful learning for families. On Fridays, ChildStrive runs early childhood programming for families with children aged 0 to 5. The regular programming roster also includes:

• **Free ESL classes for adults**, taught by Everett Community College professors, with infants welcome in the classroom with their caregivers
• **Free primary care health clinics** for low-income and uninsured adults
• **Apple Health and health insurance enrollment assistance** for residents navigating the benefits system
• **An onsite advocate** for survivors of intimate partner violence, with connections to protection orders and referral services
• **Community event space** for cultural celebrations, neighborhood meetings, and organizational gatherings

The Village is not a single-purpose building. It’s a gathering point — one where an ESL student in the morning might share the hallway with a family at a health clinic and a neighborhood group holding a planning session in the evening. That overlap is intentional and, over time, community-building in the most practical sense of the term.

Connect Casino Road: 15+ Partners, One Corridor

The Village operates within a larger collaborative called Connect Casino Road, which unites more than 15 private and public sector partners around a common goal: creating a safe, welcoming community for Casino Road families, addressing economic mobility in one of South Everett’s highest-need areas, and reducing the displacement pressure that has intensified as light rail development and broader Snohomish County growth reshape the neighborhood’s long-term geography.

The Connect Casino Road partnership recognizes what any long-time resident of the corridor already knows: this is a high-need area not because of something broken in its residents, but because of decades of underinvestment in the infrastructure — physical, institutional, and economic — that other Everett neighborhoods have taken for granted.

Heritage Month is a useful moment to name that work explicitly: the organizations operating along Casino Road are doing real things, for real people, with limited resources and consistent commitment.

AAPI Heritage Month 2026: The Theme and What It Means Here

The 2026 national AAPI Heritage Month theme — “Power in Unity: Strengthening Communities Together” — was selected to honor the history of collective action within AAPI communities across the United States, and to highlight the role that coalition-building plays in community resilience.

On Casino Road, that theme is not abstract. It’s the EvCC professor teaching English to a Vietnamese grandmother in the same Village space where a Cambodian family is attending a health clinic. It’s the Filipino community members sharing resources with Mexican neighbors through mutual aid networks. It’s the nonprofit staff and city planners and faith leaders who have committed, over years, to treating Casino Road as a neighborhood worth investing in rather than a problem to manage.

The AAPI communities along Casino Road — Vietnamese, Cambodian, Filipino, and others — have anchored this corridor’s cultural life for decades. Their restaurants, markets, and faith communities are woven into the everyday texture of South Everett in ways that go far beyond being photographed for a Heritage Month social post. They are the neighborhood.

How to Engage With Casino Road This Month

If you’ve never made Casino Road a destination, May is a good month to change that.

The food alone — Vietnamese pho, Cambodian dishes, Filipino bakeries, Mexican home cooking — represents a concentration of culinary culture that Everett as a whole benefits from having. The FOOD desk at Exploring Everett has covered several of these restaurants individually, and the corridor rewards its own exploration.

Beyond food: The Village on Casino Road is a public resource, and Connect Casino Road’s work is ongoing. Learning what these organizations do, attending a community event if you’re in a position to, or simply patronizing the businesses along Casino Road with the same enthusiasm you’d bring to a waterfront restaurant is itself a form of participation in Heritage Month.

South Everett’s Casino Road community doesn’t need validation from the rest of the city. But recognition, attention, and economic participation from neighbors across Everett — that’s something every community can use more of. This month offers a specific reason to show up.

Frequently Asked Questions About Casino Road’s Community

What cultural communities live along Casino Road in Everett?

Casino Road has significant Vietnamese, Cambodian, Filipino, and other Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander communities, alongside Mexican, East African, and other immigrant populations. Approximately 25% of residents are first-generation immigrants.

What is The Village on Casino Road?

The Village is a community hub operated in collaboration with ChildStrive and the Connect Casino Road initiative. It offers ESL classes, health clinics, Apple Health enrollment help, family programming, and community event space, bringing together more than two dozen service organizations.

What is AAPI Heritage Month and when is it?

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is observed every May. The 2026 national theme is “Power in Unity: Strengthening Communities Together.”

What is Connect Casino Road?

Connect Casino Road is a collaborative of more than 15 local public and private partners working to support families, address economic mobility, and reduce displacement pressure in the Casino Road corridor of South Everett.

How long has ChildStrive been serving Casino Road?

ChildStrive’s history on this corridor traces to 1963, with the Little Red School House. ChildStrive purchased the current building in 1998. The full community hub opened in March 2020 following a two-phase construction process.

Why does Casino Road matter to Everett?

Casino Road represents one of the most culturally diverse and economically active corridors in Snohomish County. The communities here have built real institutional infrastructure for mutual support. Engaging with Casino Road is engaging with a meaningful part of what makes Everett a genuinely diverse city.

Living in Evergreen: South Everett’s Pine-Lined Neighborhood Where Good Schools, Walkable Parks, and Everyday Convenience Actually Come Together

**What is the Evergreen neighborhood in Everett, WA?**

Evergreen is a south Everett neighborhood of nearly 5,000 residents known for its tree-lined streets, all-ages school pipeline from Madison Elementary through Cascade High, and a commercial corridor along Evergreen Way that puts everyday errands within easy reach. It is one of the few south Everett neighborhoods where walkability, park access, and schools all land in the same zip code.

Drive south from downtown Everett on Broadway or Evergreen Way and the skyline shifts. The density of the urban core gives way to split-level homes set back from the road, pine trees rising above rooflines, and the particular quiet of a neighborhood that has been doing its job — housing working families within reach of everything — for decades. That neighborhood is Evergreen, and it’s one of the most consistently livable places in south Everett that doesn’t get nearly enough credit for it.

Evergreen was established as a formal city neighborhood association in late 2004, with assistance from the City of Everett’s Office of Neighborhoods. But the community itself is much older than that — Evergreen Way has been the working commercial backbone of south Everett since long before anyone was holding neighborhood association meetings, and the schools that anchor it have been in place since 1958 when Evergreen Middle School first opened its doors.

Where Evergreen Is and What It Feels Like

Evergreen sits in the southern reaches of Everett, roughly 5 miles from downtown and approximately 30 miles from downtown Seattle. The neighborhood is bounded by major corridors and transitions naturally into adjacent areas including Twin Creeks to the south and Westmont-Holly to the west. Evergreen Way is the spine — a 5-mile commercial stretch that runs directly into downtown, lined with restaurants, Fred Meyer, Safeway, QFC, and the kind of corner stores that carry actual produce and spices for a genuinely diverse customer base.

The residential streets branch off Evergreen Way into cul-de-sacs and quieter side streets. The housing stock is predominantly condos, split-level homes, ramblers, and traditional single-family homes — the kind of mix that attracts first-time buyers who want more space than an apartment but aren’t ready for a new-construction price tag. The median sale price for homes in Evergreen over the last 12 months sits at approximately $530,000, down about 5% from the prior year, and homes have been moving in roughly 33 days on average — significantly faster than the national average of 54 days. That combination of relative affordability by Everett standards and faster-than-average sales velocity tells you something real: people who find Evergreen make up their minds quickly.

The School Pipeline That Actually Works

One of Evergreen’s defining characteristics is that the entire K–12 pipeline runs through or near the neighborhood, and all three schools hold a solid grade.

Madison Elementary feeds into Evergreen Middle School, which feeds into Cascade High School — and all three earn a B grade from Niche. What’s notable is that all three campuses are within walking distance of each other, which is genuinely unusual in a city Everett’s size. For families with kids across different grade levels, that concentration matters.

Evergreen Middle School has been part of the neighborhood’s identity since it opened in 1958 and was fully remodeled in 1999. Cascade High School, meanwhile, has built a strong reputation for its robotics team, which has grown steadily in membership and actively competes at the regional level. Cascade also offers the International Baccalaureate program — one of the few public high schools in Snohomish County to do so — making it a destination school even for families outside the immediate attendance boundary.

For parents of older students weighing career pathways, Everett Public Schools’ High School Summer Academy runs at Eisenhower Middle School each July, and Everett Career Link — a partnership between EPS, Snohomish STEM, the City of Everett, and regional employers — offers real-world job experience for high schoolers who want to start building a résumé before graduation.

Phil Johnson Ballfields: The Park That Got a Real Upgrade

If there’s one park that defines outdoor life in Evergreen, it’s Phil Johnson Ballfields at 400 Sievers Duecy Boulevard. The 13-acre facility includes four softball and baseball diamonds configured to also fit four soccer fields for youth leagues, a playground, picnic tables, and restrooms — and it was transformed by a $4.65 million renovation that made it one of Snohomish County’s most accessible athletic facilities.

The renovation added artificial turf, adaptive markings designed for physically and developmentally disabled children, and improvements that make it significantly easier for wheelchair users to access the playground and playing surfaces. It’s one of those upgrades that doesn’t make headlines but changes daily life for families who show up on Saturday mornings. Youth sports leagues run throughout the spring and summer, and the field lighting means the facility stays usable well into the evening.

The Commercial Corridor: What “Convenient” Actually Means Here

The Evergreen Way commercial strip is not photogenic. It’s not the kind of streetscape that wins walkability awards. But for the people who live here, it delivers. Major grocery anchors — Fred Meyer, Safeway, QFC — sit alongside independent restaurants, nail salons, auto services, and the kind of small food businesses that reflect Evergreen’s genuinely diverse resident base. The corridor puts essentially every daily errand within a short drive or, for some residents, a walkable distance.

The proximity to the corridor is also why Evergreen attracts a range of residents: Boeing workers who want a direct shot toward Paine Field, families who want to be in the Cascade High attendance zone, and young buyers who want more living space than north Everett offers at a price that still makes mortgage math work.

What Long-Timers Know About Evergreen

Residents who have lived in Evergreen for more than a few years tend to describe it with a specific kind of satisfaction: the neighborhood does what it promises. The schools are real, not aspirational. The park works. The commute to downtown or up to Paine Field is manageable. The streets are quiet without being remote.

It’s not the most talked-about neighborhood in Everett — that distinction still belongs to the waterfront and downtown. But Evergreen occupies a particular role in the city’s neighborhood ecosystem: a stable, well-established south Everett neighborhood that has been absorbing families for decades without drama, and that continues to deliver on the basics better than its reputation might suggest.

If you’re looking at south Everett and haven’t put Evergreen on the shortlist, it’s worth a closer look.

Frequently Asked Questions About Evergreen, Everett

What schools serve the Evergreen neighborhood?

The Evergreen neighborhood is served by Madison Elementary, Evergreen Middle School, and Cascade High School — all within the Everett Public Schools district and all earning B grades from Niche. Cascade High also offers the International Baccalaureate program.

What is the housing market like in Evergreen?

Median home sale prices in Evergreen are approximately $530,000 (down ~5% year over year). Homes typically sell in about 33 days, faster than the national average of 54 days. The stock includes condos, split-levels, ramblers, and traditional single-family homes.

Are there parks in the Evergreen neighborhood?

Yes. Phil Johnson Ballfields at 400 Sievers Duecy Blvd is the area’s primary park — 13 acres with baseball, softball, and soccer fields, plus an accessible playground upgraded during a $4.65M renovation.

Is Evergreen a good neighborhood for families?

Evergreen consistently rates well for families because of its walkable school pipeline, accessible park facilities, and commercial corridor that handles daily errands. Niche rates it above average for families.

How far is Evergreen from downtown Everett?

Evergreen is approximately 5 miles from downtown Everett via Evergreen Way. It’s also roughly 30 miles from downtown Seattle.

When was the Evergreen Neighborhood Association formed?

The Evergreen Neighborhood Association was established in late 2004 with assistance from the City of Everett’s Office of Neighborhoods. The neighborhood itself is significantly older.

Quick answer: Westmont and Holly are two adjacent south Everett neighborhoods that share one neighborhood association, the Westmont-Holly Neighborhood Association (WHNA). The City of Everett’s official neighborhood association directory lists them jointly because that’s how residents organized themselves — meeting together since the early 2000s on the first Monday of each month at Horizon Elementary at 222 W Casino Road. Westmont skews younger, denser, and more apartment-heavy. Holly skews older, more single-family, and slightly higher-income. Together they form one of the most diverse, most multilingual, and most under-the-radar parts of Everett.

There are 21 neighborhoods on this desk’s rotation list, but if you ask the City of Everett, there are really 19 — because Westmont and Holly meet together, organize together, and run a single neighborhood association. The city’s official directory at everettwa.gov/334 lists “Westmont-Holly” as one entry, not two. Both everettwa.gov/571/Westmont and everettwa.gov/429/Holly redirect to the same Westmont-Holly page. That’s not a bureaucratic accident — that’s how the people who actually live there decided to do it.

If you’ve driven Casino Road, Evergreen Way, or 100th Street SW lately, you’ve been in Westmont-Holly. The two neighborhoods together form the densest, most diverse part of south Everett — the corridor where the city’s apartment complexes, immigrant-owned restaurants, and oldest 1960s ramblers all sit side by side. This is where a real chunk of Everett actually lives, and it almost never gets profiled.

Here’s what’s worth knowing about the joint neighborhood the city counts as one.

The neighborhood association is the core of the story

The Westmont-Holly Neighborhood Association meets the first Monday of every month at 6 p.m. at Horizon Elementary School (222 W. Casino Road), with occasional schedule shifts noted on the city’s calendar at everettwa.gov/Calendar.aspx. The association maintains its own site at westmont-holly.com, where bylaws, meeting minutes, emergency preparedness resources, and a links/resources page are published.

This is one of the longer-running joint neighborhood associations in Everett. The city’s Council of Neighborhoods at everettwa.gov/338 — the body that coordinates between the 19 official neighborhood associations and city government — has carried Westmont-Holly as a single representative for years. The association is volunteer-led and currently looking for residents to help with newsletter posting, fliers, and event coordination, per their site.

What that means in practice: if you live in Westmont, Holly, or anywhere in between, the place to plug in is the WHNA. Not two separate associations. One.

Where exactly are these neighborhoods?

Westmont sits in south Everett, roughly south of Madison and west of Evergreen Way, with the south-end portion bordering 100th Street SW and Airport Road. Holly sits adjacent — generally just east of Westmont, with much of the neighborhood north of 100th Street SW. The City of Everett maintains a neighborhood map at everettwa.gov/2255/Neighborhood-Maps that shows all 19 official neighborhood boundaries, including the joint Westmont-Holly footprint.

For driving orientation: if you’re on Casino Road heading west from I-5, you cross into Westmont-Holly territory before you reach Highway 99 / Evergreen Way. Kasch Park (which we covered yesterday) sits right at the south edge of the neighborhood. The Mukilteo School District boundary cuts through here — the western and southern parts of the joint neighborhood are Mukilteo SD, the eastern parts are Everett Public Schools, and Horizon Elementary, where the association meets, is a Mukilteo SD school.

Westmont: dense, young, multilingual, and renter-majority

Westmont’s character is shaped by housing stock. The neighborhood is heavy on garden-style apartment complexes, four-plexes, and 1970s and 1980s multifamily buildings, with single-family homes and condos scattered through it. According to Homes.com and NeighborhoodScout data, roughly 80% of the resident population in the broader Westmont area rents.

Median age is about 33 — younger than the city overall. Westmont is also one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse parts of Everett, with nearly half of households speaking a language other than English at home. The most commonly identified ancestry in the neighborhood is Mexican, at roughly 21% of residents, with significant Vietnamese, Filipino, and Russian/Ukrainian communities as well.

Recent housing data from Homes.com puts the median sale price for Westmont homes at roughly $366,450 over the past 12 months — substantially below Everett’s overall median, reflecting the apartment-heavy housing mix. That price point makes Westmont one of the more accessible entry points into Everett homeownership for first-time buyers willing to consider condos and small single-family homes in a denser setting.

The proximity to Paine Field and Boeing matters here. Westmont is roughly five miles south of downtown Everett and within easy commute distance of both Paine Field (the airport and Boeing’s commercial campus) and the Mukilteo ferry. For workers in aerospace and the trades — and there are a lot of them in this corridor — Westmont’s housing math has historically penciled out.

Holly: older single-family stock and quietly stable

Holly tells a different story than Westmont, even though they share the same association. Per Homes.com and Point2Homes data, Holly’s median sale price over the past 12 months is closer to $630,997 — up about 6% year-over-year — and the housing mix tilts more toward 1960s and 1970s single-family ramblers, condos, and townhouses. Detached homes are scattered throughout, and condos and townhouses cluster north of 100th Street SW.

The income picture in Holly is closer to the regional average than Westmont’s, with average household income around $90,350 according to neighborhood-level estimates. White-collar workers make up roughly 70% of the working population. The renter share is lower than Westmont’s, but still substantial — most of the residential real estate skews renter-occupied, especially in the multifamily portion of the neighborhood north of 100th Street SW.

Holly is more linguistically diverse than the Everett average but less so than Westmont. English is spoken by about 57% of households, with Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Tagalog all represented. The most commonly identified ancestry in Holly is Mexican at roughly 15% of residents.

What it’s like to actually live here

The everyday experience of Westmont-Holly is shaped by Casino Road and Evergreen Way. The corridor has the highest concentration of immigrant-owned restaurants in Everett — Vietnamese, Mexican, Salvadoran, Filipino, Cambodian, Russian, Ukrainian — and the food scene here is one of the genuine cultural assets of the city. We’ve covered Casino Road corridor work, Tabassum (the Uzbek food truck on Beverly Lane just west of the neighborhood), and the broader Casino Road corridor in earlier desk pieces.

Kasch Park anchors the south end of the joint neighborhood with synthetic turf fields, a playground, and a popular community-event venue. Lions Park and Forest Park sit just to the north and east. The Interurban Trail runs along the eastern boundary, providing the same paved pedestrian/bike spine that connects Pinehurst-Beverly Park down toward Lynnwood.

For families, the school question is real and worth understanding. Most of Westmont and parts of Holly are in Mukilteo School District (Horizon, Discovery, Mukilteo Elementary; Olympic View Middle; Mariner High). The eastern portions of Holly are in Everett Public Schools (Cascade High zone). Mukilteo’s 2026 bond — is directly relevant here because it funds capital projects at schools serving south Everett families.

The transit picture is improving. Community Transit’s recent acquisition of the former Goodwill bins site at 11815 Highway 99 — sits just outside the joint neighborhood’s eastern edge. Casino Road is one of the most-used Community Transit corridors in the system. Sound Transit’s Everett Link extension, scheduled for 2041 service, will eventually bring light rail to the SW Everett station near Airport Road, with a station at I-5 and 112th SW just east of Westmont-Holly.

Where the joint association fits in Everett’s bigger neighborhood story

Westmont-Holly is part of a quietly shifting story about how south Everett organizes itself. For decades, the corridor was treated as a single undifferentiated chunk of “Casino Road” — usually framed in shorthand and not always favorably. The reality is that this part of Everett has 21 neighborhoods just like the historic core does, and the joint Westmont-Holly Neighborhood Association is one of the more durable examples of residents organizing themselves around the city’s official Council of Neighborhoods structure.

The other south-Everett neighborhoods we’ve spotlighted — Twin Creeks, Cascade View, Boulevard Bluffs, Pinehurst-Beverly Park, Glacier View — each have their own associations and their own meeting cadences. Westmont-Holly’s choice to consolidate is itself a model: when two adjacent neighborhoods share schools, parks, transit corridors, and housing markets, doing the work together is more sustainable than splitting volunteer energy in half.

If you live in either neighborhood and want to plug in, first Monday of the month, 6 p.m., Horizon Elementary, 222 W. Casino Road is the door. Bring a neighbor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the City of Everett list Westmont and Holly together as one neighborhood association?
Westmont and Holly are two distinct neighborhoods, but they share a single neighborhood association — the Westmont-Holly Neighborhood Association (WHNA) — because residents organized themselves jointly. The City of Everett’s Council of Neighborhoods at everettwa.gov/338 recognizes WHNA as one of 19 official neighborhood associations, and both everettwa.gov/571/Westmont and everettwa.gov/429/Holly redirect to the same Westmont-Holly page.

When does the Westmont-Holly Neighborhood Association meet?
The Westmont-Holly Neighborhood Association meets on the first Monday of each month at 6 p.m. at Horizon Elementary School, 222 W. Casino Road, Everett, WA 98204. Schedule changes are posted on the city’s calendar at everettwa.gov/Calendar.aspx and on the WHNA site at westmont-holly.com.

Where exactly are the boundaries between Westmont and Holly?
The City of Everett’s official neighborhood map at everettwa.gov/2255/Neighborhood-Maps shows the precise boundaries. In rough terms, Westmont covers the western and southern portion of the joint neighborhood — south of Madison, west of Evergreen Way, and bordering 100th Street SW and Airport Road. Holly sits adjacent, generally to the east, with much of the neighborhood north of 100th Street SW.

What school district serves Westmont-Holly?
Both districts. The western and southern portions are served by Mukilteo School District (Horizon Elementary, Discovery Elementary, Olympic View Middle, Mariner High). The eastern portions of Holly are served by Everett Public Schools (Cascade High zone). Families considering a move should verify the specific school assignment for their address through the district lookup tools at mukilteoschools.org and everettsd.org.

How does Westmont compare to Holly on housing prices?
Westmont’s housing stock is heavily multifamily — apartments, condos, and four-plexes — and the median sale price over the past 12 months is roughly $366,450 per Homes.com. Holly has more single-family ramblers from the 1960s–1970s and a higher median sale price closer to $630,997, up about 6% year-over-year. The neighborhoods share a single association but have meaningfully different housing markets.

What’s the cultural and linguistic profile of Westmont-Holly?
Both neighborhoods are among the most ethnically and linguistically diverse parts of Everett. In Westmont, nearly half of households speak a language other than English at home; the most commonly identified ancestry is Mexican (about 21%), with significant Vietnamese, Filipino, and Russian/Ukrainian communities. In Holly, English is spoken by about 57% of households, with Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Tagalog all represented; the most commonly identified ancestry is Mexican (about 15%).

What parks and community spaces serve the neighborhood?
Kasch Park, Everett’s largest athletic complex, sits at the south edge of the joint neighborhood at 8811 Airport Road. Lions Park and Forest Park sit just to the north and east. The Interurban Trail runs along the eastern boundary. We’ve covered Kasch Park in detail at the Kasch Park local’s guide.

How do I get involved in the Westmont-Holly Neighborhood Association?
The easiest way is to attend a monthly meeting (first Monday, 6 p.m., Horizon Elementary). The association’s website at westmont-holly.com has the bylaws, meeting minutes, and a contact page. WHNA is currently looking for volunteers to help with newsletter posting and event coordination.

Quick answer: Beginning September 2026, Everett Public Schools is replacing Naviance with SchooLinks as the platform every student uses for their state-required High School and Beyond Plan. The switch isn’t optional for the district — Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction selected SchooLinks as the universal statewide platform, and EPS is one of more than 200 districts moving to it. Naviance keeps running through the 2025–26 school year. The biggest practical change for families: SchooLinks is built for parents and guardians to log in too, so for the first time in a long time, you’ll actually be able to see your kid’s plan.

If you’ve been a parent in Everett Public Schools for more than a couple of years, you’ve probably heard the words “High School and Beyond Plan” enough times to tune them out. The plan is a state graduation requirement, every student in grades 7–12 has one, and most parents have only the dimmest sense of what’s actually in it. That’s about to change.

Starting in September 2026, EPS is switching from Naviance — the platform students have been using for years — to SchooLinks, the new statewide platform Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) picked for every district in the state. The transition isn’t a local district decision. It’s a state-level move, and Everett is just doing its part of it on schedule.

Here’s what’s actually changing, why, and what it means for families across Cascade, Everett, Henry M. Jackson, and Sequoia.

The state made the call, not the district

Washington has required a High School and Beyond Plan for graduation for years. The plan starts in 7th grade and is supposed to follow the student all the way through high school — connecting their interests to their classes, their post-graduation training plans, and what they actually want to do for work.

The problem was that every district was using its own platform. Some used Naviance. Some used Xello. Some used home-grown spreadsheets and Google Docs. When students moved between districts — and Snohomish County families move a lot — their plan didn’t move with them.

In May 2024, OSPI announced that SchooLinks would be the new universal statewide platform. The 2025 OSPI Report to the Legislature laid out the transition timeline. Per state law, every district serving grades 7–12 has to be on SchooLinks by the 2026–27 school year.

For Everett Public Schools, that means September 2026. Naviance keeps working through this current 2025–26 school year. Then the lights go out and SchooLinks comes on.

What’s actually different about SchooLinks

If you’ve ever helped a kid log into Naviance, you know the experience: the student logs in, parents don’t have an account, and the only way you find out what’s in the plan is if your kid shows you their screen.

SchooLinks is built differently. The platform includes family access — meaning parents and guardians can log in directly, see their student’s plan, see what classes are mapped to what career interests, and engage with the planning process without having to lean over their teenager’s shoulder. EPS has flagged this as one of the biggest practical changes for families.

The platform itself is the kind of career-and-college planning toolkit you’d expect in 2026. Students use it to set goals, plan coursework four years out, explore career fields, look at financial aid, and build out a résumé. The big difference from Naviance is that SchooLinks is designed to be the system of record for the state’s High School and Beyond Plan, which means the plan you build follows the student between districts and across the state.

Why this matters for Everett specifically

Everett Public Schools enrolls roughly 19,000 students across 26 schools, and the district has been running one of the higher-performing High School and Beyond Plan implementations in the state — the 2024–25 graduating class hit a record graduation rate well above the state average, and the district credits in part the work students do in their HSBP.

The risk in any platform transition is that the plans students have already built in Naviance get stranded. EPS has said Naviance will continue through the 2025–26 school year, which gives counselors a runway to migrate plans, train staff, and roll the new platform out without dumping a half-finished plan on a junior six months before graduation. Families with a senior graduating in spring 2026 will finish their HSBP entirely in Naviance. Families with a 7th–11th grader will see the change next fall.

The district has set up an email — hsbp@everettsd.org — for families with questions about the transition. School counselors are the front-line resource, and counselors at each high school will have specific guidance on what to do with existing Naviance plans during the transition window.

How this connects to Career Connected Learning

EPS has been pushing Career Connected Learning (CCL) for years now, and the SchooLinks transition fits into that bigger picture. CCL is the framework that ties classroom learning to extended learning (camps, after-school programs, clubs) and work-based learning (internships, apprenticeships, job shadows). The High School and Beyond Plan is the through-line that connects all of it for the student.

In practice, that means a Cascade High student interested in aerospace can map a four-year course plan in SchooLinks, link it to Boeing-area internships through CCL, and track it all in one place — with their parents able to see the same view. That’s the use case the state is optimizing for, and it’s the use case Everett’s been building toward at the district level.

What Everett families should do right now

If your student has an active Naviance plan, you don’t need to do anything urgent. Naviance is still the official platform through June 2026.

What’s worth doing in the next few months:

Ask your student to show you their current plan. Even before SchooLinks rolls out, the High School and Beyond Plan is a real document and a real graduation requirement. Most parents don’t know what’s in it. Now is a good time.

Check the EPS High School and Beyond Plan page at everettsd.org/college-career-readiness/high-school-and-beyond-plan for transition updates as fall 2026 gets closer.

Watch for SchooLinks family-account information in late summer or early fall 2026. The whole point of the platform change is that you’ll be able to log in. Take the opportunity when it shows up.

Reach out to your student’s school counselor if you have a junior or senior in spring 2026 and you’re worried about plan continuity. Counselors will have the most accurate, school-specific guidance.

The bigger picture is that Washington’s High School and Beyond Plan is finally getting a single platform every district uses, every student carries with them between districts, and every family can see. Everett’s part of that’s happening this September.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does Everett Public Schools switch from Naviance to SchooLinks?
SchooLinks officially launches for EPS students and families in September 2026. Naviance continues to be used through the 2025–26 school year, so seniors graduating in spring 2026 will complete their High School and Beyond Plan entirely in Naviance.

Why is EPS making this switch?
The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) selected SchooLinks as the universal statewide High School and Beyond Plan platform for all districts. Every Washington district serving grades 7–12 is required to be on SchooLinks by the 2026–27 school year per state law.

Will parents and guardians have access to SchooLinks?
Yes — that’s one of the biggest changes. SchooLinks includes family access, allowing parents and guardians to log in and view their student’s High School and Beyond Plan and progress directly. Naviance did not support family logins for most districts.

What is the High School and Beyond Plan?
The High School and Beyond Plan is a state graduation requirement in Washington. Every public school student starts the plan in 7th grade and updates it through high school, mapping career interests to coursework, post-graduation training, and college planning.

Will my student lose their Naviance plan when the switch happens?
EPS has not published specific migration details yet, but the district has committed to a smooth transition with Naviance running through the full 2025–26 school year. Families with specific concerns about plan continuity should contact their student’s school counselor or email hsbp@everettsd.org.

How many other Washington districts are on SchooLinks?
OSPI announced in 2024 that 156 districts plus tribal compact schools, technical colleges, and charter schools committed to SchooLinks for the 2025–26 school year, joining 45 districts that launched the platform in 2024–25. By 2026–27, every district serving grades 7–12 will be on it.

Does this affect Cascade, Everett, Jackson, and Sequoia high schools differently?
No — the transition applies district-wide. Counselors at each high school will provide school-specific guidance on existing plans, but the platform itself is the same across all four EPS comprehensive high schools.

Where can families ask questions about the transition?
Email hsbp@everettsd.org or contact your student’s school counselor directly. The EPS website at everettsd.org/college-career-readiness/high-school-and-beyond-plan is the canonical source for transition updates.

Quick answer: Housing Hope is Everett’s largest affordable-housing nonprofit. It manages more than 650 affordable rental units across 24 sites in Snohomish County and Camano Island, has helped 328 households become homeowners through its Team HomeBuilding sweat-equity program, and is breaking ground in 2026 on a new 26,700-square-foot Tomorrow’s Hope Child Development Center at 4526 Federal Avenue in partnership with Compass Health. The organization has a new CEO and is chasing a 1,000-unit goal by 2030.

Housing Hope: The Complete 2026 Guide to Everett’s Largest Affordable-Housing Nonprofit and the New Tomorrow’s Hope at 4526 Federal Avenue

Drive past 4526 Federal Avenue right now and you will see survey stakes, fresh fencing, and site-prep equipment on the northeast corner of the Compass Health campus. That is a 26,700-square-foot child development center under construction. It belongs to Housing Hope — and most Everett residents have never heard of the organization that is building it.

That is unusual. Housing Hope manages more than 650 affordable rental units across 24 sites in Snohomish County. It runs a sweat-equity homeownership program that has produced 328 first-time homeowners. It operates a child development center that has served Everett families for more than thirty years. It is the largest affordable-housing nonprofit in the city. And it is in the middle of its biggest year in a long time.

This is the complete 2026 guide to Housing Hope: what it does, where it operates, the new Tomorrow’s Hope project at 4526 Federal Avenue, the new CEO at the top, and the 1,000-unit goal driving the next four years.

What Housing Hope Actually Does

Housing Hope’s mission is to promote and provide affordable housing and tailored services that reduce homelessness and poverty across Snohomish County and Camano Island. In practice, the organization operates five integrated programs:

1. Affordable rental housing. More than 650 units across 24 sites. Rents are set on a sliding scale based on household income and family size — not market rate. The portfolio runs from single-room transitional units to family-sized apartments specifically designed for households exiting homelessness.

2. Team HomeBuilding. A sweat-equity homeownership program where working families help build their own and each other’s homes. The program has produced 328 first-time homeowner households. Participants commit hundreds of hours of construction labor in exchange for a deeply discounted mortgage on a home they helped frame, side, and finish.

3. Tomorrow’s Hope Child Development Center. Quality childcare for kids aged four weeks through twelve years, with a sliding-scale fee structure that prioritizes families currently living in Housing Hope properties or recently exited from homelessness. The current facility has operated for more than 30 years and is being replaced by a much larger purpose-built building at 4526 Federal Avenue.

4. Workforce and family services. Career counseling, financial coaching, and family stability supports embedded inside the housing portfolio. The integration is the point — residents do not have to leave the property to access services.

5. Development and acquisition. Housing Hope’s real estate development arm acquires sites, secures funding stacks (federal LIHTC, state Housing Trust Fund, county and city contributions), designs new housing, and operates the resulting buildings. The organization has been one of the most consistent affordable-housing developers in Snohomish County for thirty years.

The New Tomorrow’s Hope at 4526 Federal Avenue

The signature 2026 project is a new 26,700-square-foot Tomorrow’s Hope Child Development Center on the Compass Health campus at 4526 Federal Avenue. Several things matter about that project:

Capacity triples. The current Tomorrow’s Hope serves a fraction of the demand the program receives. The new building expands enrollment dramatically, with classroom space designed for kids from infancy through age twelve.

The Compass Health partnership is real. Compass is the dominant behavioral-health provider in Snohomish County. Co-locating childcare on the Compass Health campus puts behavioral-health services and childcare in the same place — which matters for families navigating both at once.

Funding is layered. Affordable-housing-and-services projects of this scale do not get built with one funding source. The financing typically combines state, county, and city contributions with private philanthropy and tax-credit equity. The fact that the project has reached site-prep means that capital stack is closed.

The 30-year handoff. The existing Tomorrow’s Hope facility has been operating for more than three decades. Replacing it with a purpose-built modern center is the kind of generational handoff few nonprofits successfully execute. Housing Hope is doing it.

The Leadership Change

Housing Hope has a new CEO: Kathryn Opina. Leadership transitions at long-running nonprofits are inflection points — they reset strategy, relationships with funders, and operational culture. For an organization the size of Housing Hope at the moment of an active capital project and a 1,000-unit growth target, the timing is significant. Local civic watchers should be paying attention to how the new CEO frames the next four years.

The 1,000-Unit Goal

Housing Hope is publicly chasing a 1,000-unit goal by 2030. From the current 650+ portfolio, that is roughly 350 additional units across the remaining four years. At Snohomish County construction costs, that is a multi-hundred-million-dollar development pipeline. The organizations that move that kind of pipeline through approvals, financing, and construction usually sit at the table when local housing policy is debated. Housing Hope sits at that table for Snohomish County.

Where Housing Hope Operates in Everett

The 24 sites are spread across Snohomish County and Camano Island, with concentrations in Everett’s lower-income neighborhoods, on Casino Road in South Everett, near downtown, and along the corridors where transit access supports car-light households. Specific properties include transitional housing for families exiting homelessness, permanent supportive housing, family workforce housing, and senior housing — Housing Hope’s portfolio is intentionally diverse so that residents can move within the system as their circumstances change without leaving the network of services.

Why Housing Hope Matters in 2026

Three pieces of context make Housing Hope particularly relevant this year:

Snohomish County’s housing-and-behavioral-health funding wave. The County Council recently approved $23 million for housing and behavioral health programs. Housing Hope is structurally positioned to absorb funding allocations from those streams.

Everett’s CDBG / HOME / AHTF priority-setting. The city’s Community Development Advisory Committee is holding a May 5 public hearing on 2027 federal housing fund priorities. Housing Hope is both a funder applicant and a major operator of the kind of housing those funds target.

The 51.8% inventory jump. Snohomish County’s housing inventory rose 51.8% in March 2026. That is a market-rate signal. The affordable-housing tier — which is what Housing Hope operates in — is structurally separate from market-rate inventory, and its tightness is not relieved by a market shift. The need does not move with the inventory chart.

How Everett Residents Can Engage

For a household needing housing or services: contact Housing Hope directly to inquire about waitlist availability, eligibility, and program intake. The organization serves residents of Snohomish County and Camano Island.

For a household wanting to support the work: Housing Hope accepts financial contributions, in-kind donations, and volunteer hours, particularly for the Team HomeBuilding sweat-equity program where construction-skilled volunteers can directly accelerate move-in dates for participating families.

For Everett residents wanting policy influence: the May 5 CDAC public hearing is one of the more direct levers for shaping how 2027 federal housing dollars get spent locally.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Housing Hope and where is it based?

Housing Hope is an Everett-headquartered nonprofit that builds and operates affordable rental housing, supports homeownership through sweat-equity construction, and runs childcare and family services across Snohomish County and Camano Island.

How many units does Housing Hope manage?

More than 650 affordable rental units across 24 sites in Snohomish County and Camano Island, with a publicly stated goal of 1,000 units by 2030.

What is the new Tomorrow’s Hope at 4526 Federal Avenue?

A new 26,700-square-foot child development center under construction on the Compass Health campus at 4526 Federal Avenue in Everett. It replaces the current Tomorrow’s Hope facility and triples childcare capacity.

Who is the new CEO of Housing Hope?

Kathryn Opina is the new CEO of Housing Hope, leading the organization through its current capital expansion and the 1,000-unit growth target.

What is Team HomeBuilding?

Team HomeBuilding is Housing Hope’s sweat-equity homeownership program. Participating families commit hundreds of hours of construction labor on each other’s homes in exchange for a deeply discounted mortgage on a finished home they helped build. The program has produced 328 first-time homeowner households.

How does Housing Hope set rent?

Rent is set on a sliding scale based on household income and family size, not market rate. That is the structural distinction between affordable housing and market-rate housing.

How can Everett residents support Housing Hope?

Through financial contributions, in-kind donations, and volunteer hours, including direct construction labor on Team HomeBuilding projects. Residents seeking housing or services can contact Housing Hope directly to inquire about eligibility.

Is Housing Hope related to Compass Health?

Housing Hope and Compass Health are independent organizations. The new Tomorrow’s Hope facility is being built on Compass Health’s campus at 4526 Federal Avenue as a partnership project, co-locating childcare with behavioral-health services.

Related Exploring Everett coverage:

• Volunteers of America Western Washington: The Complete 2026 Guide
• Snohomish County Council Approves $23 Million for Housing and Behavioral Health
• Cocoon House: The Complete 2026 Guide to Everett’s Youth Homelessness Nonprofit
• Mayor Franklin’s 2026 State of the City: Five Priorities Now Shaping Everett