Boundary Process Frequently Asked Questions

All areas of the district will be considered during the boundary adjustment process.

From the Facilities Task Force work in 2018 that drove the decision to pursue a voter-approved referendum, the data showed Elton Hills, Franklin, and Jefferson Elementary Schools and John Adams and Willow Creek Middle Schools were above 105% of capacity. The average elementary school was at 98% of capacity and the average middle school was at 99% of capacity in 2018.

Open enrollment is a feature where students from outside of the district can come to this district. Within the district, an exception to attendance is required to attend a school outside of your neighborhood boundary. Exceptions can be granted based on specific criteria. We do not expect a change to the current process.

This question will be considered as part of the boundary adjustment process.

This is an operational discussion that the School Board will have on December 15. A final decision is not expected until May 2021.

The boundary adjustment process is focused on elementary and middle schools at this time. However, high schools could be affected based on feeder patterns (the path from elementary to middle to high school).

There are not plans to build another elementary in the next five years. This referendum was to build  three elementary schools to help with capacity for the next 10+ years.

The District plans to make the boundary adjustment changes in 2021 to be effective for the fall of 2022. We will be working with families on open houses, visits with principals, teachers, etc. in advance of the change.

This is an unusual situation where four new schools will be opening at the same time. It is possible most schools will experience some sort of boundary adjustment as part of this comprehensive process with certain schools more impacted than others.

The desire is the committee will reflect all stakeholder groups, including teachers and staff because they represent the community as parents and taxpayers, too.

The School Board will be discussing this on December 15.

Proposed boundaries will be shared this spring, likely in April 2021.

The intent of the focus groups is to provide a venue for community members to have discussions around the options with each other. In order to do this, the community members will need to have completed the initial survey regarding the options. Community members will need to be familiar with the options in order to have a conversation about the options. This also gives us more time to make sure that more stakeholders are involved in the process.

The School Board will make the final decision, possibly as early as May 2021 but no later than September 2021. The School Board will take all community feedback into consideration.

The results of the surveys will be available for the public to see. The School Board wants to hear from a variety of stakeholders. The School Board will take all community feedback into consideration and make the best decision they can for the entire school district.

We will look at a variety of demographic information we have available to match the school makeup as close as we can to community demographics.

All district stakeholders were invited to provide their feedback on the list of criteria. The School Board will take all the feedback into consideration before making final decisions.

The School Board will discuss this on December 15.

Can the community see the committee workings (meeting minutes, notes, etc.) so that everyone can see the process?

The boundary adjustment committee will work with Cooperative Strategies to develop options using the feedback from the community survey and direction from the School Board. Making the meetings public puts a lot of pressure on the community volunteers. If this were to be a public process, the School Board should be the committee and do the work in open session. The community will have multiple points to provide feedback once the Boundary Advisory Committee develops options to share. Committee members are pledging that they will participate in the process with the needs of the entire community in mind. Committee members will not be advocating for or against specific schools.

This committee is a group of volunteers who will work on options.  The committee has no decision-making authority.  The committee will only make recommendations to the School Board. Because the volunteers are not elected officials, their meetings are not subject to open meeting law. The volunteers will eventually present their recommendations to the School Board in an open meeting. The School Board will make a final decision in an open meeting.

School identify is a stabilizing force and without much that is constant for families is this really the best time? Can this issue start in a year from now?

We are going through this process now so that we can give our families a full school year before they go into effect. Boundary adjustments are a necessary part of building new neighborhood schools in a school district. As part of the 2019 referendum process, we promised the community to complete this process one year before the effective date. Boundary adjustment will go into effect the fall of 2022.

The application asks for school affiliation so we can balance the committee and ensure community representation. The School Board will discuss the selection process on December 15.

This is likely to happen given the comprehensive nature of the boundary adjustments that need to be made. The School Board will consider all feedback from stakeholders before making a final decision. The School Board needs to make the best decision they can for the entire district.

We will reach out to people between December 16 and January 19.

There are certain changes that have to be made due to new construction and other changes that could better balance schools across the district.

1. Need for an attendance boundary for new NW elementary school
2. Need for an attendance boundary for new NW middle school
3. Need for an attendance boundary for new Longfellow elementary school that works in conjunction with the 45-15 calendar district-wide option program that will remain at Longfellow
4. Need to balance all buildings as best as we can:
   1. No schools above 100% utilization
   2. Continue to offer same level of district-wide options, although having some flexibility to move program locations if needed
   3. Reasonable balance between socioeconomic demographics and walkable schools

We will follow our normal staffing processes in the spring of each year. Annually, teachers move buildings and positions based on many factors. A boundary adjustment of this magnitude will likely mean more teachers than normal will move in the fall of 2022.

District-wide option schools are considered programs. Programs may be moved depending on needs from time-to-time. The School Board will have a discussion on December 15 regarding some programming changes that were recommended by the 2018 Facilities Task Force. We do not expect a final decision on any programming changes until the School Board makes a final decision on boundary adjustments.

One of the main purposes of the 2019 referendum was to secure money for an additional comprehensive middle school, an urgent need the district has anticipated for several years. With the addition of a fourth comprehensive middle school, it would be inefficient to run five middle schools at a cost of approximately $410 extra per middle school student ($1.38 million annually.) The district wide option elementary schools fall outside of the Friedell decision.

No, this process does not assume that District-wide option schools will close.

We will follow our normal staffing process and contractual obligations. We anticipate that staff from Friedell will have first opportunity to transfer to the new middle school.

Boundary changes determined by this process will take effect in the fall of 2022. Students at Bishop Elementary will go to the new NW elementary school for 2021-2022 while the current Bishop building is demolished and reconstructed. Bishop students will return to the new Bishop school in 2022-2023. For the start of the 2022-2023 school year, the new NW elementary school will be open as a neighborhood school with a boundary.

We will follow the normal staffing process that happens the spring before each school year starts. Tours can happen but not until after the building is completed.

Yes, the new school is set to serve up to 1,200 students, which is close to what our other comprehensive middle schools serve.

The district did try to secure land in SW for the new middle school but ultimately had to cancel the transaction because we could not secure approval from the City Council to extend public utilities and infrastructure to that neighborhood. The new middle school site was selected based on where City utilities and infrastructure existed. The district owned the land for the new NW elementary school since 1990 and this location is in a growing area of the district. The new Longfellow will expand capacity in SE Rochester.

The district has two early learning schools (Hoover and Mighty Oaks) that serve a large number of our early childhood students. The new NW elementary school will be for students in Kindergarten through Grade 5.

The new NW Elementary School will open for the 2021-2022 school year but it will serve the Bishop Elementary students attending for one school year while their school is reconstructed. All other schools will open for 2022-2023. Just to be clear, there is not a new high school being built nor are there plans to run a referendum to secure funding for a new high school at this time.

Ideally, all of our schools will be balanced to 85-95% of capacity so there is room in all schools for additional students as neighborhoods change.