2016-17 Elementary Boundary Adjustments
Recommended Boundary Adjustment Area
District staff have reviewed historic and projected enrollment trends for the northern portion of the District, as a whole, with the intent of defining a recommended scope of boundary adjustments (i.e. the number of schools that will be involved) to accommodate the Kaiser Road K-5.
While enrollment trends in a number of the elementary schools north of Highway 26 have trended upward, and a number of schools rely on portable classroom capacity, staff have concluded that a boundary adjustment process should be limited to the Springville and Jacob Wismer attendance areas.
The reasons for including Springville and Jacob Wismer in the boundary adjustment process are:
- The location of Kaiser Road K-5, within Springville's current attendance boundary makes it necessary to adjust that school's boundary, in any case;
- Of all of the schools north of Highway 26, Springville is the most accutely impacted by current overcrowding and future residential development growth;
- Springville is also home to approximately 180 6-8th graders, who for the 2016 school year have been relocated; and
- Jacob Wismer, which is the next closest school, has also been close to or above its capacity; currently that school has two portable classrooms on site.
There are several reasons for not including other schools in the area. While some capacity issues at other schools in the northern portion of the District could be remedied by a boundary adjustment process, it would likely yield more costs than benefits. The "domino effect" needed to adjust 10 attendance boundaries to accommodate a school at the very northern end of the District would be very difficult. Furthermore, most of the boundary shifts will still be in the Springville and Jacob Wismer area; changes to schools further south would be much smaller in scale - but not without significant community disruption.
Criteria for Boundary Adjustments:
- Availability of space
- Proximity to school
- Neighborhood unity
- Staffing patterns
- Safety
- Transportation
- Student Body configuration
Boundary Advisory Committee
The District will establish an advisory committee to engage in an inclusive, comprehensive process to study and recommend attendance boundary changes for Springville and Jacob Wismer elementary schools. The committee will include six parents/community members from the two schools (three from each school). The principals of each school will be ex-officio members of the committee. The process will begin in October 2016 and end in December 2016. The advisory committee meetings will be open to the public and take place at an appropriate location in the Bethany area of the District. Prior to presenting his recommendation to the Board for approval, the Superintendent will verify the committee adhered to the adopted criteria and achieved the stated objectives.
The District will hold meetings for the Committee to work through the adjustment considerations and develop recommendations. Four meetings have scheduled; more may be added should they be needed. You can access the calendar and meeting information here.
The meetings will be held from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., and will be facilitated by Steve Sparks, Executive Administrator for Long Range Planning and David Williams, Administrator for Government Relations. A BSD Technical Team will develop materials and support the Committee at each meeting.
Meetings of the Elementary Boundary Committee will be open to the public and publicized widley. There will be public comment at each meeting. There will be boundary activities for the public while the committee is working. The Committee will report out at each meeting. School Board Members are welcome to attend the meetings to follow the process.
Public Input
Public input is encouraged throughout the process.
Elementary Boundary Committee Recommendation to the Superintendent
The Elementary Boundary Committee met for the final time on Thursday, December 1 2016. At the meeting, the Committee heard a review of the previous meeting and the three maps under construction.
Following public testimony from the community, the Committee deliberated on the three maps to develop their recommendation for Superintendent Grotting. Committee members reached consensus 5-1 on the map titled Map Submittal #2 with an additional recommendation of grandfathering current fourth grade students at Springville K-8.
The Superintendent will review the Committee's recommendation and submit his recommendation to the School Board on January 9, 2017.
The Superintendent's recommendation to the School Board.
Proposed Map:
The District is currently building a new K-5 school (capacity750 students) on Kaiser Road in North Bethany. This new school is one of four elementary school capacity expansion projects included in the 2014 Bond Program. The Kaiser Road K-5 (as yet unnamed) is in a rapidy growing portion of the District, and is needed to:
- Relieve overcrowding in the area
- Accommodate current and future residential development
The new K-5 is scheduled to open in the Fall of 2017, and the District will need to establish an attendance boundary for the new school. Policy JC sets forth the attendance boundary criteria that the District will apply in the boundary adjustment process. In addition, the School Board approved the following objectives:
- Target an opening enrollment of approximately 500 students at Kaiser Road K-5 in 2017 (leaving additional capacity of 250 students for future growth)
- Relieve overcrowding at Springville K-8 and Jacob Wismer elementary schools.