November 5, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Redmond, Wash. – Over 500 parents responded to a survey on the potential criteria to use in evaluating potential new boundaries for elementary schools on the Sammamish Plateau. Between 55 percent and 87 percent of respondents rated five of the six proposed criteria as somewhat important or very important.

“The survey results indicated that we have solid criteria and indicated which ones are more important to parents,” noted Dr. Cindy Lundvall, chair of the committee that is charged with proposing new boundaries that will accommodate a new elementary school opening next fall. “Parents did request more definition of the criteria and made some suggestions as well.”

The committee added more information to the criteria to make their intent more specific. The criteria are listed below, with the additional wording in italics. They are followed by the percent of parents who rated the criterion as somewhat important or very important:

• Redistribute enrollment numbers to match school capacity and to accommodate projected growth, ensuring that schools are equally close to their projected total capacity to the extent possible (77%)
• Utilize natural boundaries, such as main thoroughfares, neighborhood boundaries and geographic boundaries, to the extent possible (65%)
• Minimize the number of students and families affected, i.e., the number of current students who would have to change schools (59%)
• Minimize transportation impacts, including time spent on the bus, distance travelled and cost of transportation (55%)
• Provide proximity of special programs such as special education or accelerated programs, which may currently require students to attend schools in other areas of the district, to the extent possible (35%)

“The one criterion that was not widely held by parents as important concerned children in special programs. The district has a responsibility to keep in mind the interests of special populations,” noted Dr. Lundvall, “so the committee decided to retain that item as one of the criteria.”

Parents suggested several other criteria for consideration by the committee. Some suggestions were emphases that the committee included in the further definitions of the criteria, such as spelling out “time spent on the bus” as part of the criterion on transportation impacts. In addition, parents suggested maintaining students who walk to school as walkers, which the committee believes would result if transportation impacts are minimized.

The two most suggested new criteria were whether a neighborhood had been affected in the last boundary changes and the proximity of neighborhoods to their school. The committee agreed that both issues would also be considered in the process but not be added as formal decision criteria. The committee felt that both criteria could conflict with others on the list. They wanted to retain the flexibility to propose alternative scenarios that might better meet the existing criteria.

For example, the committee agreed that it is hard on a community to be involved in boundary changes. The committee pledged to be sensitive to this issue in its process. However, it wanted to be able to provide parents with different draft boundary scenarios that might do a better job of maintaining neighborhoods and/or utilizing natural boundaries that could involve moving neighborhoods or parts of neighborhoods that had been affected in the past.

The committee agreed that sending neighborhoods to the nearest school is ideal. However, it may not be possible to “redistribute enrollment to match school capacity…” and meet that goal. The elementary schools seeing the most growth in projected population, Smith and McAuliffe, are close together. The new elementary forms a relatively small triangle with the other two. Depending on the number of children in a specific neighborhood, it may be necessary to retain them at a school that is not the closest one to ensure that no one school is over capacity.

A number of parents wanted to ensure that students in fifth or sixth grade could continue to attend the school where they are now, a practice known as grandfathering. “Grandfathering is part of the implementation of boundary changes,” noted Lundvall. “We will look at grandfathering when we determine how the new boundaries will be implemented.”

The committee is now developing draft boundary scenarios that it will be released to the public on November 30. Parent input will again be sought on these draft scenarios in early December.

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About Lake Washington School District
The Lake Washington School District is the sixth largest district in the state of Washington. It has more than 23,000 students in 49 schools located in Kirkland, Redmond, and Sammamish, Washington.