ROGERS — Parents at Westside Elementary School said Tuesday they will conduct their own survey on how many families will be split between high schools through proposed boundary changes.

During a parent teacher organization meeting at the school Tuesday night, parents discussed how the transfer of students living within the Westside boundary from Elmwood to Oakdale middle schools will affect students, families, schools and staff members.

The transfer wouldn’t only change Westside students’ middle school, but switch them from Rogers High School to Heritage High School, according to a boundary proposal scheduled for discussion at the Rogers School Board’s February meeting.

While he understands the need to fill Janie Darr Elementary School when it opens this fall, parent Jason Lindner said that doesn’t justify immediate changes at the middle school and high school level. He hopes the School Board could delay a decision on middle and high schools until summer, with changes to take place the following year. His sixth-grader will change schools three times in three years if the plan goes through as written. His allegiance to his children’s schools is written in a growing collection of T-shirts.

“Stop switching everybody around,” Lindner said. “I’m tired of buying shirts.”

Other middle school students would also be affected by proposed changes. Students living in the Garfield Elementary School area will change middle schools from Oakdale to Greer Lingle Middle School and the edge of the Garfield map will be redrawn. Students in the new Darr attendance area would be destined for Elmwood. Many of those students came from Elza R. Tucker Elementary School which now feeds Elmwood.

Several parents at the Westside meeting said their children have been trained to be Mounties since enrolling in school. The cross country program hosts a mini-Mountie event and a baseball academy recruits and develop future Mounties, Lindner said. Parents said they didn’t think the same options exits in the Heritage feeder pattern.

“I’m 1,000 feet away from the border,” said parent Julie Frus.

She said she is worried about the safety of her children if they attend Heritage and will sell her home in order to keep a child at the baseball academy.

“I want to be a Mountie,” Frus said.

Parents said they know the area around Darr will grow, but their question is how fast.

Don’t divide families with students already at Rogers High School, said parent Tim Howington. Let students finish out the feeder pattern, at least through sixth grade. Growth can be gradual, he said.

“Then the question becomes, ‘When do you need us,’” Howington said, expressing a common sentiment at the meeting.

Demographics are another consideration, Howington said. Homes built near Darr will likely be more affluent and with an enrollment of 700 the boundaries may need to change again to equalize the number of children in need at the high schools. Elementaryschool numbers are more accurate than high school, Howington said. His calculations show a 13 point difference in children qualifying for free and reduced lunch between the two high schools if Westside goes to Heritage. That alternate plan hasn’t been fully considered, Howington said.

Parent teacher organization president Brooke Bisbee-Ribar said Westside is central within the district and parents are frustrated with the frequency of changes there. While she doesn’t expect a 10 years projection, if middle school parents had a time frame for change that is paired with expected growth it would make better sense.

A parent survey will ask how many families would be split if sixth through eight grades weren’t grandfathered in and how many parents plan to grandfather their children. That data will be provided to the school board.

“We don’t think it’ll be a lot of kids,” she said.