North Thurston school boundary changes proposed

No pain?

That wasn’t an option with the changes that are being proposed next week by North Thurston Public Schools’ Boundary Review Committee, according to consultant Jim Dugan, the group’s facilitator.

But the nearly 25-member group did try to make decisions on school boundaries that inflicted the least amount of pain for students and families, while still striving to meet the district’s goals, he said.

“We came down to very little (pain),” Dugan told the North Thurston School Board last week.

South Sound’s largest public school system will host three town meetings this coming week to solicit feedback on the committee’s proposed school attendance boundary changes. The committee and district officials have chosen to keep the specific recommendations and boundary maps under wraps until the town meetings, according to district spokeswoman Courtney Schrieve.

“The committee feels strongly they want people to come to meetings first to see in person the changes and hear why those changes are being recommended,” she said.

The proposed changes would take place in the middle schools during the 2016-17 school year, and during the 2017-18 school year for elementary schools, Schrieve said.

The Boundary Review Committee began meeting in March. It’s made up of parents, staff, students and other community members from the district’s three comprehensive high school zones: North Thurston, River Ridge and Timberline.

The group was charged with creating school boundary changes that help the district:

▪ Populate the district’s new middle school, Salish Middle School, which is scheduled to open next September in the Hawks Prairie area.

▪ Identify neighborhoods that will send children to a new elementary school that will open at the current Aspire School for the Performing Arts site at 5900 54th Ave SE in the fall of 2017. At that point, Aspire will move next to North Thurston High School on Sleater Kinney Road Northeast, on a piece of property and building that was a former Bally’s Fitness Center.

▪ Create space for more growth, and improve the balance of enrollment and diversity at all schools.

Dugan shared some of the highlights of the committee’s work during last week’s school board meeting.

He said the proposals:

▪ Include an “almost 100 percent” walking zone for the new elementary school, which means few children will need to ride the bus.

▪ Keep enrollment numbers at the high schools at levels that allow the schools to remain in their sports leagues.

▪ Create additional space at some schools where new homes have already been permitted or are expected to be built soon so there will be enough room for students in those neighborhoods.

There also was a push to keep students together throughout their K-12 experience, Dugan said.

“We kept schools together from elementary to middle to high school,” he said.

Assistant Superintendent Troy Oliver said he believes the community engagement on the issue has been strong, and he is pleased that the committee worked with the transportation department to ensure the boundary changes made the best use of the district’s bus routes and schedules.

But Oliver said he expects some consternation over the proposed changes — which could be adjusted again, depending on community feedback — before they’re put before the School Board for adoption in November.

“Anytime you go into a boundary review process, it is not going to be easy,” Oliver told the School Board.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 10:13 AM with the headline "North Thurston school boundary changes proposed."