MARYSVILLE – Hundreds of elementary and middle school students will attend different campuses over the next two years under a proposal that reshapes Marysville School District boundaries.
The changes would affect about 800 middle school students next fall and 1,000 elementary school students in the fall of 2008.
The district needs to change school boundaries because it is adding a third middle school in September and an 11th elementary school the following year.
Totem Middle School will open for the sixth through the eighth grades. Totem will take over the Marysville Junior High campus, which now serves students in the eighth and ninth grades. Those students will move on to high school in the fall, marking the end of Marysville Junior.
In 2008, Grove Elementary School will open. It will include about 100 students from Kellogg Marsh, 190 from Pinewood and 166 from Allen Creek elementary schools.
The school district expects to hear concerns from parents.
“I know from past experience changing boundaries can be difficult,” Superintendent Larry Nyland said. “Kids are the most important part of our lives.”
Elementary school boundaries will in large part dictate middle school boundaries. For instance, students from Liberty, Marshall, Shoultes and Sunnyside Elementary schools will attend Marysville Middle School.
There are a few exceptions under the boundary recommendations where small pockets of students from four elementary schools will attend a different middle school than their classmates from elementary school.
An advisory board spent months studying potential boundaries. Voting members of the committee included parents, district residents, two school board members and union representatives.
Their criteria included socio-economic and racial balance, distance to school and keeping neighborhoods intact, among other factors.
Sharon Flynn, a mother with two elementary school children, served on the committee. She hopes parents will understand the committee had to consider what was best for the entire district over individual preferences.
“In the big picture, you have to look at what’s best for all the students,” she said.
Flynn predicts most questions will come from people in areas where schools are close together and will have many students come and go. Pinewood Elementary, for instance, could lose about 190 students to Grove but add about 100 from Cascade Elementary.
She encouraged parents to ask questions early on and get accurate information about what the proposal could mean to them.
Don Whitfield served on the committee as a parent who would not be affected by a boundary change. He said the research has been thorough.
“I think they have done a good job of trying to balance all the needs,” he said.
Melody Fitzmaurice will have children in the district’s elementary, middle and high schools next year.
She was a parent representative on the advisory panel.
“I’m like anyone else. I don’t like change,” she said. “Change is scary, but this will be better. I really do believe that this will be a very good thing for the schools and for the kids in the long run.”
She likes the fact that Marysville will finally have all its middle schools teaching the same sixth through eighth grades.
District officials said there will be an “open enrollment” opportunity for families to request a school outside their assigned attendance area. Requests that don’t significantly alter enrollment at any middle school will be considered.
The Marysville School Board will review the boundary recommendation April 9.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
Two meetings planned
The Marysville School District has set two informational meetings for parents and residents to learn more about proposed elementary and middle school boundary changes.
The meetings are 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at the school district board room, 4220 80th St. NE.
Send comments to Michael_Casey@msvl.k12.wa.us or to Michael Casey, 4220 80th St. NE, Marysville, WA 98270.
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