Middle School Boundary FAQ'S

1. Has the committee met since the March 12, 2020 meeting to discuss the boundaries?

No. The advisory committee has not met to discuss the boundaries or have worked on the boundaries since its last meeting on March 12, 2020. No changes to the draft map have been made or proposed since the March 12th meeting.

2. Has the committee membership changed since the March 12th meeting?

Yes. The BSD Student Advisory Committee member who was a member on the Middle School Boundary Adjustment advisory committee has graduated from high school and is now attending college. She will not be replaced.

3. When will the process resume?

The process will resume on Thursday, August 20, 2020 with the reactivation of the public comment submittal link on the Middle School Boundary Adjustment web page. The next meeting of the advisory committee will be on Thursday, September 3, 2020. At that meeting the advisory committee will review its prior work, review the materials requested at the March 12th meeting, and direct staff for information to be provided before its next meeting.

4. Have any of the factors in reaching a boundary recommendation changed?

No. The Board Objectives for the Middle School Boundary Adjustment and the factors identified within Board Policy JC have not changed.

5. Why is the MSBA process resuming now?

The new middle school in the Timberland neighborhood will open in September 2021. An attendance boundary is required to place students in that school. Adequate time to provide for a meaningful transition for those students, their families, and future staff to that school is a necessity. The District had intended to allow for a full year of transition planning. Based on the delay in the boundary process necessitated by the Covid-19 crisis, the District is hopeful for an approximately six month transition period by resuming the MSBA process now. 

6. Can the public attend the committee meetings?

No. Due to the restrictions put in place by the State of Oregon, we are unable to conduct the advisory committee meetings with the public in attendance. The meetings will be conducted virtually and broadcasted on the District's YouTube channel. 

7. How can the public provide testimony to the committee?

There will be two ways the public can provide testimony to the advisory committee.

The first method will be through the public comment form on the MSBA web page. Throughout the months of the previous review process, the committee was receiving and reading the comments that had been submitted through the web page link.

The second method for testimony had been to provide oral testimony at the committee's meetings. Since the future committee meetings will not be open to the public, the District will establish a link whereby interested parties may register to provide oral testimony to the committee during its virtual meetings. The process will resemble the process that had taken place at the prior public meetings. Those parties who register will be asked to provide their names, addresses, email addresses, and identify the elementary school attendance area in which they reside. Staff will randomly select names from each elementary school attendance area and invite those selected parties to provide two (2) minutes of oral testimony to the committee. The registration period and selection of speakers will be one to two days before the committee meeting. Those parties that are selected to speak will receive a Zoom meeting invitation to participate in the meeting at the time when public testimony will be taken. As was the case during the public meetings, only those parties selected will be authorized to provide testimony. Deferring to another person to provide testimony will not be accepted.

8. When will the committee issue its recommendation?

The committee will issue its recommendation to Superintendent Grotting in October 2020.

9. Does the committee recommendation have to be unanimous?

No. The recommendation has to be from the majority of the committee.

10. What happens after the committee issues its recommendation?

Superintendent Grotting will issue his decision in early November 2020. At its regular November meeting, the Board will review Superintendent Grotting's decision and determine if the decision is consistent with the Board's Objectives and Policy JC. If the Board does find that the Board's Objectives have been met and the factors identified in Policy JC have been considered, final action on the boundary adjustment will be taken at the Board's regular meeting in December 2020.

1. Why are the attendance boundaries for middle schools being adjustment? 

There are several reasons for adjusting the middle school attendance boundaries.  First, a new middle school in the Timberland neighborhood will open in SY 2021-22.  A new attendance boundary must be created for that new middle school.  Creating a boundary will impact other existing middle school boundaries.

Second, there is an over enrollment problem at Stoller Middle School wherein the enrollment exceeds the capacity of the school.  For SY 2019-20, the enrollment is 1,560 and the total capacity of the school, including portable classrooms, is 1,375.

Third, there is current and future residential growth occurring in the northern and southwestern parts of the District which will bring new students to the District.  The boundary adjustment is needed to be ensure that middle schools can accommodate future projected student enrollment.

2. Will the advisory committee be making the decision on attendance boundaries?

No.  The advisory committee will make a recommendation on the attendance boundaries for all middle schools to the Superintendent.  The committee’s recommendation will be made in March-April 2020.   

3. Who will make the decision on middle school boundaries?

The School Board.  The Board will consider the Superintendent's recommendation and take action in May-June 2020.

4. How will a decision on the attendance boundaries be made?

The actions of the advisory committee, the Superintendent, and the School Board will be based entirely on the adopted Board Objectives and the factors contained within Board Policy JC.  The factors are:

-Student body composition;
-Current and future availability of space at a school;
-Feeder patterns from elementary, middle to high school; and
-Neighborhood proximity and accessibility.

5. Why did the Board adopt an objective placing enrollment of Stoller MS at approximately 90%?

The Board identified approximately 90% enrollment of the building capacity of Stoller MS in order to reduce student enrollment to a size comparable to other middle schools and to allow for student enrollment increases that are projected to occur over the next several years.  Increased student enrollment is associated with the recent and future residential development in the North Bethany area.

6. When is the 90% enrollment at Stoller MS supposed to be achieved?

The objective of a student population of approximately 90% of the permanent capacity of Stoller MS is to be reached in September 2021.  September 2021 is the first year of the new middle school boundaries.

7. What are the enrollment capacity objectives for the other middle schools?

Each middle school has a different enrollment capacity based on its design.  For the MSBA project, the Board has not established an enrollment capacity objective.  However, each middle school requires approximately 800 general education students in order to offer comprehensive middle school programming.

8. Will busing be considered in the recommendation/decision?

Yes.  Transportation is a component of the Policy JC factor “Neighborhood proximity and accessibility”.

9. Is there a maximum amount of time that a student can be on a bus?  Is there a maximum distance for a bus route?

​​​​​​​No.  Students will be transported by bus on routes determined by Transportation Department.  The goal is to be as efficient as possible and minimize the time a student is being transported.  However, routes and time are dependent on the student’s home location. 

10. ​​​​​​​Why was Raleigh Hills and Springville made only K-5 recently? Is there an option to reverse the decision?

The decision to transition Raleigh Hills K-8 and Springville K-8 to K-5s was made in Sept. 2019. The decision was made by District leadership and the Superintendent and it is final. The two schools will complete the transition and open the 2023-24 school year as K-5 schools.

11. How were the “Theme Maps” created and how will they be used?

At the November 5, and November 21, 2019 committee meetings, the public were provided an opportunity to participate in community mapping workshop exercises after which time the community maps were presented and submitted to the Advisory Committee.  The community maps were ideas for possible boundaries based on the community’s understanding of the neighborhoods in which they live.

The dozens of submitted workshop maps were summarized by staff into theme maps which represent the most commonly expressed ideas from the community.  The theme maps will be used as starting points for the Committee's deliberations beginning at the December 19, 2019 committee meeting.

The committee's recommended map may or may not resemble any of the theme maps.

12. ​​​​​​​Will the community be allowed to do more mapping exercises?

The community mapping workshop exercises were undertaken as the initial phase of the MSBA project.  That phase of the project is complete and no additional community mapping workshops are planned.  Individuals are welcome to submit mapping recommendations to the Advisory Committee through the public comment portal on the District's MSBA project web page.

1.  When will Timberland actually be open to students as their middle school?   
August 2021

2.  What are the steps in this process?  Do you have dates for important meetings in the future we should know about?   
Please visit our website for all information pertaining to the Middle School Boundary Adjustment process.

3.  Will there be a grandfather clause so that students can stay and finish at the middle school they started at, so they don’t have to go to 4 different schools in just a few years?   
The Beaverton School District no longer uses the term “grandfathered.” We will be using the word “legacy” instead. The advisory committee will consider the issue of legacy students and make a recommendation to the superintendent.

4.  Will boundaries be drawn so that feeder schools all go to the same middle school, instead of being split up for middle school, then back together for high school?   
That is one issue/subject the committee will consider.

5.  What month / day will the new boundaries be announced?   
The advisory committee recommendation will be made the end of March or early April 2020.

6.  My son will be entering 7^th grade in 2020. Would he be grandfathered in to finish 7^th and 8^th grade at his current school if it were to change?   
The transition plan and whether or not we will have legacy students will be evaluated by the advisory committee and a recommendation will be forwarded to the superintendent.

7.  Will the new boundary affect all middle school students or just the ones closest to the new school?   
The project is evaluating all middle school attendance boundaries.

8.  Will this change where Summa will be offered?   
There are no plans to change Summa.

9.  Will Summa be offered at Timberland?   
There is no plan to expand the Summa program to include the new middle school.

10.  Would any of the “option” middle schools be converted to regular middle schools?   
No.

11.  Is the new MS slated to be an options school?   
No. It will be a comprehensive middle school.

12.  Will there be consideration for economic diversity at each school?   
Please see Board Policy JC for what factors go into adjusting school boundaries.

13.  Are the advisory committee meetings at the different middle schools open to the public?   
Yes

14.  What factors is the committee taking into consideration as they make decisions?  Of those factors, which ones are being prioritized?   
Please see School Board Policy JC for the factors.

15.  Are you taking into consideration changes in population due to developments or development potential? Are you considering safety routes to schools?   
Please see School Board Policy JC for the factors in determining attendance boundary adjustments.

16.  Will the change of middle school boundaries affect the current high school boundaries?
School Board direction to the committee is to look at HS boundaries only if minor adjustments would make sense for any of the factors in Policy JC. Moving large areas from one HS boundary to another is not an available option to the advisory committee.

17.  Is there a “working draft” boundary map to view?
No. The advisory committee will start with the existing boundaries.

18.  Will the new boundary go into effect for the 20-21 school year or the 21-22 school year.
The school will open as a new middle school in the fall of 2021, so the 21-22 school year.