October 31, 2008

Evergreen School District Boundary Realignment

By Larry Cargnoni and Kathy Gomez
Special to the Times

At the Oct. 14 District 8 Community Round Table meeting, Kathy Gomez, Assistant Superin-tendent, Educational Services of the Evergreen Elementary School District, presented a status of the District’s proposal to realign the boundaries for some of its schools. None of the proposals are expected to take effect until at least the 2009-2010 school year, and only after getting more input from the community.

The Evergreen School district manages 15 elementary and 3 middle schools that serve approximately 13,000 students. Evergreen Elemen-tary, the first school in the district, was established in 1860. Seventeen schools have been built since then, the latest, Carolyn Clark, was completed in 2004. “Although the overall District growth is flat or slightly declining” said Gomez, “some schools are impacted and consequently there is disparate enrollment as sites across the district.” Gomez stated, “Every school should be able to accommodate special education classes, child care, after-school program and auxiliary programs (such as GATE, computer, music and art).”

The District has computed a “Preferred Maximum Enrollment” for each school. Preferred Maximum Enroll-ment is the number of students a given school can reasonably accommodate while allowing room for special education classes, after-school programs, etc. Carolyn Clark and Tom Matsumoto current enrollment exceed the schools’ Preferred Maximum Enrollment. An audit of students’ residency at both schools found that there was no major issue of nonresidents attending them. Both schools require four forms of identification as proof of residency.

Gomez added, “Children in the Meadowfair neighborhood attend six different elementary schools.” Not having all children attending the same school in their neighborhood hurts their ability to build and nurture strong friendships.

In 2007, the Evergreen School District Board of Trustees chartered two committees, one (the Southeast Committee) to address the overcrowding of schools in the District’s southeast corner, including Carolyn Cark and Tom Matsumoto and one to address the issue of Meadowfair students attending six elementary schools (the Meadowfair Committee). Committees were made up of parents of the impacted areas, local leaders and Evergreen School District teachers and administrators.

The Southeast Committee was asked to find ways to reduce overcrowding at schools in the southeast corner of the district, notably Carolyn Clark and Tom Matsumoto, and to level enrollments at schools across the district. Using “Ten Factors of Consideration” (such as ensuring student safety, reducing bussing, maintaining educational programs, etc.) the committee studied existing boundaries, current and projected enrollments and each school’s preferred maximum enrollment and then made recommendations to realign boundaries so that the enrollment at each school would align more closely with its preferred maximum.

The Meadowfair committee was asked to find ways to reduce the number of elementary schools its students attended. The committee recommended boundary alignments to Dove Hill, K.R. Smith, and Montgomery schools that reduced to three the number of schools attended by Meadowfair neighborhood students.

The District held three community meetings on the recommendations in September. On Oct. 18, the Board of Trustees conducted a work session to hear the recommendations of the committees, the input from the community and the District administration’s recommendations for boundary realignment. The Board took no action and is expected to hear options on implementation or “phasing” at their Nov. 13 meeting.

More complete information on the committees’ recommendation can be found on the District’s website at www.eesd.org.

The next District 8 Community Round Table meeting will be held on Nov. 6 at the Evergreen Branch Library from 7-9 p.m. For more details on the D8CRT, visit www.d8crt.org. Larry Cargnoni is an officer of the D8CRT.