EVERETT – It’s back to the drawing board.
A committee of principals and parents is tweaking its proposal for new elementary attendance boundaries in the Everett School District after hearing from more than 150 parents this summer about its initial ideas.
A second public hearing will be held next month on a revised map that makes a couple of significant changes.
Work on a new map comes as the district prepares to open a new school in 2007 in its growing south end.
Changes will affect five existing schools: Cedar Wood, Mill Creek, Penny Creek, Silver Firs and Silver Lake elementary schools. Woodside Elementary School also was included in the study, though no changes are planned there.
The six schools together enrolled more than 3,500 students this past school year, 400 more than what they were designed to handle. Meanwhile, new housing developments continue to pop up in the area.
The group of 20 people charged with redistributing neighborhoods when the new school opens was to make its final recommendation this week. That’s now been delayed.
Two key changes were made to the map at a meeting this week:
* Families living in “Area 2” in the current Penny Creek attendance area would no longer be moved to Silver Firs Elementary School.
* “Area 3” in the current Cedar Wood area would be divided. Those living south of Seattle Hill Road would attend Silver Firs. Those living north of the road still would be sent to Penny Creek.
The hearing on the revised proposal will be held at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 13 at Henry M. Jackson High School in Mill Creek.
In all, 1,079 students would shift from one school to another under the proposal, 156 less than the previous proposal.
Most concern over the proposal has come from parents in the portion of Cedar Wood known as “Area 3.” They’ve resisted being switched to Penny Creek, saying it’s too far away.
Rod and Heather Jablinske live south of Seattle Hill Road, and their oldest child will attend Silver Firs as a fourth-grader in 2007 under the latest changes.
“I want a sense of community, and Silver Firs gives us more of that sense,” Heather Jablinske said.
Some parents who live north of Seattle Hill Road had hoped to attend Mill Creek Elementary School across 35th Avenue SE.
The study group opted to keep the busy road as a dividing line, however, consistent with middle school boundaries.
Members of the study group are sensitive to parents’ concerns, but it’s not possible to please them all and keep class sizes small, said Silver Firs principal Patty Gauksheim, who serves on the committee.
“So many parents have … a loyalty to the school,” she said. “But what they forget is that part of what made their school so great was them. If they have to move, they’ll take those qualities with them.”
In making its decisions, the study group looked at capacity, as well as walking routes, busing costs, neighborhoods, busy streets, new housing and middle- and high-school boundaries.
A copy of the revised proposal will be posted Tuesday at www.everett.k12.wa.us/ boundary.
Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.
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