School Board Approves Changes in Elementary Attendance Boundaries

Detailed District Map (Incl. Attend. Boundries) (Image)

Message from Larry Pint, School Board Member

Where we are:
At their monthly Board of Education meeting on Monday, December 13th, the New Prague Area Schools Board of Education approved a plan that will change the attendance boundaries of its three elementary schools. The first year of the two year plan calls for about 180 students from the Lonsdale area to attend Falcon Ridge elementary in New Prague instead of Eagle View Elementary in Elko New Market. The second year of the plan calls for about 60 students from the eastern side of the current Raven Stream elementary attendance area to be transferred to Falcon Ridge or Eagle View. Students living in the area between Highway 13 and County Road 23 may also be transferred from Falcon Ridge to Eagle View in the second year of the plan.

How we got there:
Last September, when the Board had actual enrollment numbers for each of the three elementary schools, the Board looked at projected numbers for next year. Enrollment projections for next year put Eagle View elementary basically at capacity with 698 students in a building designed for 700 students (99.7% of capacity). At the other end is Falcon Ridge elementary with a projected enrollment of 420 students in a building designed for 650 students (64.6% of capacity). Between them is Raven Stream elementary with a projected enrollment of 638 students in a 700 student building (91.1& of capacity). The Board decided that something needed to be done to prevent Eagle View from going over capacity and better balance the utilization and projected growth of each building. The Review, Evaluation and Policy committee was charged with investigating the situation and bringing a recommendation to the full board.

With the assistance of Operations Director Tim Rybak and support from Board Secretary Margaret Sticha, the committee reviewed the options available. The options investigated included changes to class configurations in the buildings. Could we move 5th grade out of the elementary schools? Would a change to primary and intermediate schools help? One by one these options were eliminated as offering no improvement, being more disruptive or being more expensive. The option the committee settled on was adjustments to the attendance boundaries. The committee felt that this was the most flexible and least disruptive of the options.

To guide the committee in setting the new boundaries, target utilizations and other objectives were established. After studying the growth history of the buildings and the district, the committee set utilization targets for each building. Eagle View, our highest growth building, received a 75% utilization target. Raven Stream, which also has shown significant growth, got a 80% utilization target. The target for Falcon Ridge was set at 90% utilization, since it has experience the least growth in the last few years. Another objective identified was to better distribute the projected growth among the buildings. Eagle View's growth is coming from two areas, Elko New Market and Lonsdale. Most of the growth in New Prague is in the Raven Stream attendance boundaries. There is relatively little new development occurring within the Falcon Ridge attendance boundary.

With those objectives in mind, it quickly became obvious that the Lonsdale area needed to shift to Falcon Ridge. By playing with various changes to the boundary line, it was determined that County Road 6 as a dividing line was a good fit for transportation issues and number of students moved out of Eagle View. It also moved one of our growth areas from Eagle View to Falcon Ridge, meeting one of our other objectives.

That still left the issue of Raven Stream being at higher utilization than our target. After playing with moving its eastern boundary, it was decided that County Road 164 and south was a good dividing point. However, moving those students into Falcon Ridge caused Falcon Ridge to exceed capacity. Now we needed to move some students out of Falcon Ridge and into Eagle View. That led to the area between Highway 13 and County Road 23 being moved over to Eagle View.

Next we did a survey of all families with students in any of the elementary schools. This was to provide them information regarding the proposed changes, get feedback from them and gauge their reactions to those changes. About 1/3 of the families completed the survey. This is a very high response rate. The breakdown between the buildings was about proportional to the student population. Of those responding, about 80% said they would not be affected by the boundary changes. Of the 20% that would be affected, about 50% said they would intra-district transfer their children back into their current building.

Then came the public meetings to present our plan to the parents. Parents in all three building have emotional ties to their buildings and did not want their children to move. (The Board views this as a tribute to all three buildings' administrations and staffs.) Many parents from the Lonsdale area stated that they would intra-district transfer their children back into Eagle View. There have even been rumors of contracting with a bus service to transport their children to and from Eagle View.

Out of these public meetings came several ideas that were implemented. First was to close open enrollment at Eagle View. Since the open enrollment deadline is in January (by State law) and the intra-district transfer deadline (by Board policy) isn't until April, there was a perceived "advantage" for open enrollment. Closing open enrollment alleviated that issue.

The second suggestion that came out of the public meetings was to phase the changes in over two years. That would give the board time to evaluate the affect of intra-district transfers and the utilization of each building.

That is how the final proposal, as approved at the Board meeting, was arrived at. The adjustment to the Eagle View's southern attendance boundary will occur for the next school year (2011-2012). After the intra-district transfers are dealt with in May, the Board will reconsider the issue of open enrollment. If Eagle View is no longer full, State law requires that we re-open the building to open enrollment.

Where we're going:
What happens the second year of the plan will depend, primarily, on the number of intra-district transfers that occur this coming spring. The board will review the attendance numbers again next fall and then decide how to proceed with the second phase of the boundary changes. A decision will, again, come before the January 15th open enrollment deadline. Since much of the study and discussion has already taken place, it could come much earlier.

The first option for the second year of the plan is to do nothing. The board could decide that the attendance figures are close enough to our targets that no further adjustment is necessary. Since one of our objectives was to reduce the utilization in Raven Stream, this option seems unlikely.

Option two would be to move the students between Highway 19 and County Road 164 to Falcon Ridge, as originally proposed. If few students intra-district transferred back into Eagle View, this will not be a viable option, unless implemented with option four. It would cause Falcon Ridge to be over capacity.

Option three would be to move the same students as in option two, but to move them to Eagle View instead of Falcon Ridge. This option would likely preclude option four from being implemented. Since a lower number of students would be transferred into Eagle View with this option, it is a more likely scenario if a larger number of students intra-district transfer back to Eagle View.

The fourth option involves the area between Highway 13 and County Road 23. These students would be moved from Falcon Ridge to Eagle View, if needed, to help achieve our target utilization percentages for each school. While this option is looking less and less likely, if implemented it would likely be in conjunction with option two.