If you could find Chalk maple (very close to sugar maple), it is suited to more southern locations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_leucoderme

Nothing southern about the PNW!! We are far more northerly than you (latitude 47N or higher) but just have a very mild winter climate and with quite cool and very dry summers.

While you can find them in some area nurseries, sugar maples are not nearly as common as red maples or Freeman maples, both of which do well here and usually offer great fall color. In fact, Freeman maples (a hybrid between red and silver maple) are extremely common and very popular. I'd be willing to guess the trees on Whidbey are very likely to be Freemans.

Yes: Whidbey isn't hot of course, as far as it goes - the main limiting factor is how dry much of the island is. Anyway unlike red maples Freeman maples have some of the drought resistance of sugar maples, are not seen repeatedly in a wilted and stunted condition in western WA parking lot plantings etc. So I would go with one of those. (Note that at least a few Freeman maple cultivars are sold incorrectly as red maple selections, with one way to tell these actual hybrids being that their leaves tend to be intermediate in shape between those of red and silver maples).

Whatever kind you choose note that maples generally are not trees for particularly dry or infertile conditions, your new planting will definitely have to be kept well watered at first. And may need to be fertilized for best summer foliage color.

http://arthurleej.com/drytrees.html

What's this particular high school called? There might be pictures on the web where the trees can be recognized.

to be clear ... no transplant is drought resistant ....

depending on how large you transplant ... you will need to provide adequate water for 2 to 4 years .... for the tree to get established ... to establish drought resistance ...

if you want an ID of a tree ... get us a pic of a leaf.. with scale ... the bark.. and the whole tree ... and we can probably ID it ...

link below on how to plant ...

i dont know where s whidbey street is ... and zone 8 is rather diverse ... can you give us a big city name [though apparently your super secret code has been broken by the pnw peeps/...]

and if you have the camera out.. give us a pic out the kitchen window .. maybe we can come up with some ideas ....

ken

Ken, we know exactly where the OP is located....and where S. Whidbey is (an island, not a street!). And the trees in question are not visible outside her kitchen window (unless she has moved in the last week or two ;-)) And she has also gotten some very regionally appropriate information.