ARLINGTON – With more parent involvement, the Arlington School District is floating a new proposal to shift elementary school boundaries.
Since last spring, when the district shelved a controversial boundary proposal, parents from Arlington’s four large elementary schools have been at the table with district administrators.
As part of a boundary advisory committee, they’ve helped draw lines on maps and digested long-term housing and enrollment projections.
Under the proposal, 349 students from four pockets of the Arlington community would change campuses as the district braces for increased enrollment. The district now has a total of 2,134 students at Eagle Creek, Kent Prairie, Pioneer and Presidents elementary schools.
The advisory committee will try to reach consensus in January and send its proposal to the Arlington School Board.
“We want to come back at the next meeting and double check ourselves,” said Warren Hopkins, the district’s deputy superintendent.
The district is trying to craft a proposal that allows its elementary schools to absorb growth. In one projection, the district could add another 980 elementary school students by 2012.
Under the proposal, Eagle Creek and Kent Prairie would add enrollment to current numbers while Pioneer and Presidents would lose students.
By redrawing boundaries, the district hopes to avoid a situation where one school is jammed and another underused.
Denise Schwans, who has a son at Pioneer Elementary School, served on the boundary advisory committee.
“I thought that it was a good process,” she said. “I think the school district and school board really saw that it needed to be looked at more thoroughly.”
The leading proposal “helps keep neighborhoods together” and offers a good balance with anticipated enrollment growth, Schwans said.
Greg Oakes was a vocal critic of the proposal early this year and was eager to serve on the advisory committee. This time he is convinced the process had broad-based representation and that the district listened.
“I felt there was a better option,” he said. “I wanted to be part of the process to be involved in finding a better option.”
Under the top proposal, his children will remain at Presidents Elementary School. However, under two other finalist options, they would have moved.
He said he would have understood if it had turned out otherwise because the committee followed a set of guiding principles.
The proposals recently made the rounds at public meetings at each of the four schools. More than 100 parents attended the meetings.
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