Bentonville School District Seeking Boundary Study

— The opening of Bentonville West High School is still more than two years away, but officials already are focused on developing the boundaries that determine which students will attend the school.

The School District intends to hire a firm to study the issue this summer and return one or more recommendations on attendance boundaries between Bentonville and Bentonville West high schools.

At A Glance

Enrollment Projections

What enrollment is projected to be at each of Bentonville’s schools this fall and the change that represents from Oct. 1 enrollments:

SchoolProjected EnrollmentChange

Apple Glen Elementary513-8

Centerton Gamble Elementary671+16

Central Park Elementary888+59

Cooper Elementary673+32

Mary Mae Jones Elementary662+15

Sugar Creek Elementary513+29

Thomas Jefferson Elementary477+13

Willowbrook Elementary790-12

R.E. Baker Elementary569+8

Elm Tree Elementary636+26

Ardis Ann Middle647+17

Bright Field Middle631-22

Old High Middle596+10

Ruth Barker Middle591+36

Fulbright Junior High773+47

Lincoln Junior High859+79

Washington Junior High776-17

Bentonville High4,345+201

Total15,610+529

Source: Staff Report

Jack Schreder & Associates, which performed a demographics study for the district last year, appears to be the firm most likely to do that work. The firm would have to update its demographics report before doing the boundary study, said Sterling Ming, finance director. Ming estimated the total cost would be $46,000.

Officials have pegged September as the likely time a boundary recommendation will be presented to the School Board for approval.

Meanwhile, the district also is interested in making boundary adjustments for grades kindergarten through eight. Any such changes would go into effect at the same time Bentonville West opens in August 2016.

The district has redesigned boundaries twice in the past two years. New elementary and middle school maps were adopted for the 2012-13 year with the opening of Willowbrook Elementary and Bright Field Middle schools. New elementary and junior high maps were adopted for the 2013-14 school year with the opening of Fulbright Junior High.

District officials cite rapid enrollment growth, especially in the district's southwest and west areas, as the reason for reconsidering boundaries districtwide. Central Park Elementary School, which added eight new classrooms last year, is already at or near capacity, said Michael Poore, superintendent.

"We have a lot of housing taking place in Centerton," Poore said. "Wait and see, (Centerton Gamble Elementary) is going to end up being the school within the next two years where it's going to start to have some capacity issues."

Wendi Cheatham, board president, and Grant Lightle, vice president, agreed boundary changes are disruptive and families hate them.

"I think the durability of the boundary is the most important thing to me," Lightle said at last week's board meeting. "Design something that will accommodate foreseeable growth where it's patterned to go."

Cheatham and Lightle suggested the district give the fastest-growing schools, such as Central Park, room to grow in the next boundary-design cycle.

"Central Park is very full and it continues to stay full even after making boundary adjustments," Cheatham said. "Parents are going to be very upset that we tweaked (boundaries) and we keep doing it."

A boundary that shrinks a school's enrollment total to 80 percent capacity to allow it to grow could work, but the district would need other facilities that could absorb the students who have been shut out of that school as a result, Ming said.

Brad Reed, director of student services, said he doesn't favor such a model.

"It doesn't make much sense to me to create a zone for a new school and then to carve part of that zone out and send those kids away so that you can open that school at 80 percent (capacity), so that when new kids move in they can go to that school, when we already have kids there that want to go to that school," Reed said.

Typically, if an elementary school has "overflow" students, they are sent to another school outside their attendance zone.

"We take six or seven from this school, two or three from this school, three or four from this school and send them to an overflow school and hire one teacher rather than hire a teacher here, here and here just because we have the rooms available," Reed said. "So it really becomes a financial decision, a facilities decision. It's all wrapped into one."

The district's enrollment has grown 35 percent since 2006. Reed projects enrollment will grow another 3.5 percent next school year. Portable classrooms at the elementary schools won't be necessary next year, but might be the year after that, Ming said.

The need to reconsider boundaries comes when the district is having to move a lot of students out of their zones, Poore said.

"And then the next step is you have to start thinking about building another school," he said.

The board is scheduled to hold a work session April 24 to consider how it will pay for its next set of schools.

About two years ago, the board established a policy saying the district would review potential boundary adjustments every year, Poore said.

The board agreed the community needs to know boundary adjustments are coming, but several board members said they were wary of soliciting feedback from the public on the issue.

"I think the transparency is important where we define the criteria we're looking for from our expert recommendation," Lightle said. "It has to be a reasonable decision. People have to understand why we did it. But it's not a matter of opinion. I don't really want to get into, 'Hey, why isn't this line across this street, can't you move it a block over?' I don't want to have a forum."

He suggested putting the study on the district's website when it's received and encouraging the public to go read it. Matt Burgess, a board member, also suggested the district record the presentation on the issue and put it online.

Every boundary decision creates some consternation within the community, but the district has made the public aware changes are coming, Poore said.

"We've been very clear over the last five or six months to say that boundary study would include some sort of adjustment that needs to take place on K through eight," he said.

NW News on 04/14/2014

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