School District Shifts Focus to New Boundaries

With the decision to close Moiola K-8 School at last week's of the board of trustees, the district's School Boundaries and Closure Committee must now decide how to redraw the district's boundary lines.

It's a task that's been largely overlooked with the majority of the attention on last week's emotional decision to close Moiola in an effort to deal with a $2 million budget deficit.

The committee began the process at its Nov. 15 meeting, and decided on proposed boundary lines at its Nov. 29 meeting. Before creating the proposed new boundaries, the mommittee looked at some of the key parameters that had gone into the boundary models:

1. Maintaining current enrollments by allowing space at each school for inter and intra district transfers
2. Regarding middle schools, increase the enrollment at Talbert and decrease the enrollments at Fulton and Masuda
3. Safety of students, i.e., not having to cross major thoroughfares to get to school
4. Keep neighborhoods together to the extent possible

The committee also discussed some of the ideas about how the new boundaries might be implemented and some of the intentions may include:

1. Allowing for a transitory period where “grandfathering” could take place
2. Giving priority for school selection to district residents
3. Letting parents know of the programs available at each school
4. Allowing for visitation times by students and parents
5. Families should be kept together unless by parent request
6. Moiola parents will have first priority in open enrollment

The proposal will now be sent to the school board for a potential vote at the board's regular meeting in January. The public will also be invited to give its input on the new lines.