BENTONVILLE -- The School District's administration on Friday released the calendar and attendance-zone boundaries it's proposing for the 2016-17 school year, both of which will be discussed during Monday's School Board meeting.
The board agreed in December to eliminate its two-calendar system and move toward a single calendar for the entire district.
Upcoming meetings
• Monday: The Bentonville School Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the School District’s Administration Building, 500 Tiger Blvd. The board will hear a presentation on recommended elementary and middle school boundaries and the 2016-17 calendar.
• Wednesday: A community forum will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Arend Arts Center at Bentonville High School. The forum will be a chance to hear more about the calendar and attendance zones.
• Feb. 16: The board will meet again on Feb. 16. It’s expected the board will approve boundaries and a calendar for the 2016-17 school year.
Source: Staff report
That required administrators to rework the elementary school boundaries because two schools -- Elm Tree and R.E. Baker -- operate on the nontraditional calendar and on their own zoning scheme, separate from the other eight elementary schools.
The proposed boundaries include a zone for elementary school No. 11, even though that school isn't scheduled to open until August 2017. Until then, students within that zone will attend a different school.
Under the proposal, Baker's and Elm Tree's zones would cover chunks of central Bentonville. Baker's zone would absorb parts of what are now Apple Glen's, Sugar Creek's, Mary Mae Jones' and Willowbrook's zones. Elm Tree's zone would absorb parts of Centerton Gamble's, Thomas Jefferson's and Sugar Creek's current zones.
Sugar Creek's zone, which now covers much of north Bentonville and southwest Bella Vista, would shift completely east of North Walton Boulevard and include some of east Bella Vista under the district's proposal.
The board also will hear a plan to change middle-school attendance zones.
The district allowed community members to weigh in on the rezoning process through an online survey. Superintendent Michael Poore said he's pleased with the process that's been used to achieve the recommended boundaries, though he knows there will be some dissatisfaction.
"When you adjust a boundary line, it almost is inherent that there's going to be somebody who's not going to be happy, because we do a great job with kids and families, and they're happy with their current schools," Poore said.
Fewer than 60 students will have to change elementary schools each of the next two school years, Poore said.
The percentages of students who qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch under the proposed 2016-17 boundary lines would range from a low of 11 percent at Willowbrook to a high of 46 percent at R.E. Baker, according to district documents.
In the online survey, stakeholders were asked to rank by importance six factors involved in designing attendance boundaries. Attending the school closest to home was deemed the most important factor by 42 percent of respondents; transportation time ranked as the second-biggest factor.
The 2016-17 calendar proposal was devised with the help of an advisory committee consisting of a parent, teacher and administrator from each grade span level, as well as classified staff members. Judy Marquess and Tamara Gibson, the district's directors of instruction, led the committee.
The proposed calendar mostly retains the look of the district's traditional calendar. The main variations are a three-day break for students during the second week of October and one extra day off in both February and April.
The committee had to craft the calendar within a framework of state requirements and district policies, Marquess said. It considered the results of an online survey that was made available to stakeholders for one week this month.
There were a little more than 5,000 responses to the survey. The committee reviewed survey results looking for areas of clear consensus and provided feedback to the committee leaders.
"We took the results of the survey, the parameters and input from the committee, then we worked on a draft calendar," Marquess said. "We took it back to (the committee) the next week and got their input on the draft calendar and made changes based on their input."
The top priority in creating the calendar was what's best for instruction, she said.
"I think we have a good compromise. I hope that people will be pleased with it. You never please everyone, but we want it to be good for kids and be family-friendly, where everyone feels they're in a comfortable spot," Marquess said.
Amy Gillespie, a Bella Vista mother of two, wasn't satisfied with the information the district released Friday, saying it left families with more questions than answers.
The calendar is not the kind of "hybrid" many parents had hoped for, in that it doesn't incorporate many of the nontraditional calendar's features, she said. She also wondered about the wisdom of having the last day of school the day after Memorial Day.
"But perhaps the most concerning item in this packet is the note under targets where the committee states boundary adjustments will be necessary again before the 2017-18 school year, leaving parents wondering why the district can't seem to get this right the first time," Gillespie said.
NW News on 01/31/2016