This week, Board of Education members got an update on the district’s project to redesign residential school boundaries. This month the project team has been working to incorporate feedback from thousands of community members into a new set of maps.
“The next revision of maps are going to calm a lot of worries,” said Frank Pantano, who is co-leading the project. This next draft is due to be released to the board and community in June.
Board members stressed that any changes to school boundaries should be made over a period of time, rather than being adopted all at once.
"We all agree there are pockets, there are areas that need to be addressed,” said Board Chair Deanna Kaplan. “But doing the whole district at one time is very disruptive.”
Project staff stressed there is no timeline to enact new boundaries.
“This was not about implementation. This was about us listening, doing the research, doing the analysis to understand our landscape,” said Dr. Effie McMillian, the other project lead.
Board members expressed concerns about whether the district would have the financial means to implement boundary changes. Some worried that families might leave the district if they did not like the final map results.
Board members discussed the idea of making targeted changes to address the highest needs for overcrowding or transportation inefficiencies, rather than change boundaries across all schools at once.
Transportation efficiency, overcrowding, school feeder patterns and other issues raised by families during the feedback sessions will be addressed in the next round of maps. Those will be available for board and public review and input in June.