Why are school boundary changes being considered?
As part of the Shaping 4J’s Future planning process, the school board requested that the superintendent review school boundaries and decide if some adjustment would make sense, in light of current school locations and enrollment.
4J’s student enrollment is declining and shifting. Some schools now have significantly fewer students residing within their attendance boundary. The district has also closed several schools and merged school attendance areas.
The boundary review process is an opportunity to ensure that students are assigned to a neighborhood school close to where they live and to ensure that each neighborhood school has an adequate number of students within its attendance boundary.
What factors were considered when proposing school boundary changes?
The school board directed that boundary changes should be adopted only as necessary to address district goals.
- Consider the proximity of students to school.
- Keep bus route no more than 45 minutes one way.
- Reduce attendance area islands.
- Avoid creating schools with high concentration of low income families.
- Keep geographically and historically defined neighborhoods together.
- Minimize impact to current students and families, particularly those directly impacted by recent school closure/boundary decisions.
- Consider ways to “grandfather” current students attending schools affected by a boundary change.
Other factors considered:
- Recent school closures & consolidations.
- Elementary schools that feed to 2-3 middle schools.
- Bus routes and efficiency.
- Parent concerns that have been raised in recent years.
- Student demographic data.
- Impact on school programs.
- School capacity.
- Potential plans for new affordable housing development.
