2017 Boundary Review Process

Final/approved boundary Recommendation

Final Update
November 21, 2017
The district started the work of redrawing attendance boundaries in January 2017. The boundary committee was charged with drawing attendance boundaries for new schools and to redistribute student enrollment due to overcrowding. Many families and community members provided feedback throughout the boundary process. The committee analyzed all feedback to develop a final recommendation. On Monday, November 20, the LWSD Board of Directors took formal action and approved the adjustment of school attendance areas in the Redmond area. The board adopted the final boundary recommendation.

Implementation of the new attendance area will correspond with the opening of the new schools in the Redmond area. Elementary attendance areas will change starting in the 2018-19 school year. Middle school attendance areas will change starting in the 2019-20 school year.High school attendance areas will change starting in the 2019-20 school year for incoming ninth grade students. Information about elementary grandfathering will be sent to families in December 2017 and to middle school families during the 2018-19 school year.

Elementary programs were also reviewed as part of the boundary process. Full-time Elementary Quest was placed in schools across the Redmond area. With the adoption of the boundary recommendation, Director, Accelerated Programs, Choice and Innovation, Heather Sánchez, will begin the work of communicating and placing Quest students. All families with students attending Quest in a Redmond area school can anticipate receiving information about next steps and timelines for decision making about student placement for the 2018-19 school year.

Over the next few months, elementary schools across the Redmond area will be communicating with families and prepare for the transition process. Families affected by the boundary change will be contacted directly concerning transition activities that will be available to students and families. These activities will introduce them to their new school and help make the transition as positive and successful as possible.

Thank you to all families and community members that have participated in the boundary process over the past 11 months.

Boundary Committee Description

A boundary committee will determine the boundaries for two new elementary schools and one new middle school

The Redmond Boundary Committee has been charged with analyzing the attendance areas for the elementary and middle schools in the Redmond area. Additionally, the committee is tasked with analyzing the high school attendance areas given current and future projections. The goal of the committee is to develop a final recommendation that provides necessary changes to school attendance areas in order to:

  • Redistribute students to existing schools
  • Draw attendance boundaries for new schools
  • Place district programs and choice schools

Lake Washington School District is committed to providing high quality education to all students. As a public school system, we serve a diverse student body. We value diversity of race/ethnicity, gender, ability, and socio-economic status. State law and district policy specifies that attendance boundaries must not cause imbalance in diversity of student population. The committee will use criteria to evaluate boundary options and ensure the task and goals of the committee are met.

Updates

Final Recommendation Question & Answer
November 14, 2017

The boundary recommendation stated that this group of students, who will be in grade 4 in 2018-19, could apply for a variance to stay at their current school through grade 5. Can these students be grandfathered rather than having to apply for a variance?

Final Recommendation
November 6, 2017

 

The boundary committee has completed its work and has developed a final boundary recommendation. The final recommendation adjusts elementary, middle school, and high school attendance areas and develops boundaries for the two new elementary schools and new middle school in Redmond. Student enrollment is distributed throughout the Redmond area to ensure elementary schools are at or below capacity by 2018-19. Middle schools are projected to be at or near capacity by the 2020-21 school year.

The Final Recommendation is available here

The boundary committee appreciates the significant amount of community input and feedback it has received throughout the process. In May and September, the boundary committee held community feedback meetings to gather input and an online open house was held in late October. The boundary committee thanks all who took time to provide feedback.

The board will receive the formal boundary presentation and recommendation at the November 6 board meeting and will take formal action at the November 20 board meeting.


Boundary Review Process Update
October 25, 2017
The boundary committee has prepared updated scenarios for review and feedback. An online open house will be available beginning today, October 25 through the end of the day on Monday, October 30. The boundary committee will use the feedback received from the online open house to develop their final recommendation.

In September, the boundary committee held community feedback meetings to receive feedback on four draft scenarios. Since that time, the boundary committee has met multiple times to review data and make adjustments based on that feedback. To analyze the data and feedback, the committee read all narrative comments and reviewed the rank-order data. The committee identified specific neighborhoods, communities, or areas that provided feedback and evaluated the feedback against the boundary criteria and tasks. Options were considered and discussed by the committee. All committee members came to agreement on proposed changes and ultimately identified Scenarios A and B to be modified and presented as the committee’s updated draft scenarios.

Rank Order Data from September Community Feedback Meetings:

ElementaryMiddle SchoolHigh School
Rank 1Rank 1Rank 1
Scenario A47%49%51%
Scenario B40%35%36%
Scenario C8%9%7%
Scenario D5%7%7%

Narrative Feedback Themes from September Community Feedback Meetings:

  • Consider greater distribution of Quest classrooms across the learning community
  • Consider natural and man-made barriers when developing scenarios
  • Consider transportation impacts for students
  • Consider continuity for students

Next Steps:
After the online open house, the boundary committee will go through the analysis and decision-making process as described above. The final boundary recommendation will be developed for presentation to the school board on November 6 for their consideration.

New Boundary Scenarios Now Available
September 25, 2017
The new boundary scenarios, including data and maps, for the Redmond area boundary review process are now available.

Scenario A Scenario B Scenario C Scenario D
Elementary Density Map Middle School Density Map
Current Situation: Elementary and Middle Schools

The committee will be available this week to discuss and answer questions regarding the updated draft scenarios at the following Community Feedback meetings:

  • September 26: 6:30-8 p.m., Redmond Middle School
  • September 28: 6:30-8 p.m., Evergreen Middle School

In addition, parents and community members will be able to provide feedback online beginning the afternoon of September 26. A link to provide feedback online will be available on this web page. We encourage you to attend a meeting and submit feedback beginning September 26.

Boundary Review Process Update
September 11, 2017
In January 2017, LWSD started the work to redraw attendance boundaries for Redmond area schools. Two new elementary schools are on schedule to open September 2018 and a new middle school is scheduled to open September 2019. With the opening of new schools, new attendance boundaries must be drawn. Additionally, many schools in the Redmond area are currently over or are projected to be over capacity.

In May, the LWSD boundary committee held community feedback meetings at Redmond middle school and Evergreen middle school. Draft elementary and middle school scenarios were presented for feedback. Since then, the LWSD boundary committee has met multiple times to analyze and develop updated scenarios—different from those presented in May.

The committee will bring these updated draft scenarios for community feedback on September 26 and 28. We will also be posting these scenarios on our website later this month.

As we continue to work through the boundary change process, we wanted to make sure you were aware of the following points:

Scenario Development:
At the community meetings in September, participants can expect to see scenarios that include elementary, middle school, and high school boundaries that are related to one another. This will allow participants to provide feedback on the overall scenario.

Limited High School Boundary Changes:
The boundaries for the high schools are changing beginning fall 2019 for Eastlake and Redmond High Schools. This will not impact current High School students. Students who will be entering the 9th grade (current 7th grade students) for the 2019-20 school year will attend high school based on the new boundaries. The only change in the High School boundaries will shift students from Eastlake to Redmond High School due to the significant growth that Eastlake is currently experiencing.

Middle School Boundary Changes:
New middle school boundary scenarios do not use feeder patterns to dictate school attendance area. Middle Schools will have their own boundaries which may or may not provide clean feeder patterns from the elementary schools.

Change in Student Enrollment Data for the 2017-18 School Year:
At the community feedback meetings in September, participants will notice that some of the data has changed from the May community feedback meetings. Student enrollment projections are updated annually in September/October as the district reports official student enrollment counts. Staff will be available at community feedback meetings to answer questions about the data.

Program Changes:
If your child is enrolled in a special program (Quest or Special Education), please know that as boundaries are adjusted some programs may be relocated based on needs.

Grandfathering:
When boundaries are adjusted, districts may consider grandfathering students. An example of grandfathering would be allowing 4th grade students to stay at their school for 5th grade. At this time, it has not been determined if any form of grandfathering will be allowed. Grandfathering will be determined based on an analysis of the boundary recommendation.

Themes from May Community Feedback
July 6, 2017
The Redmond Boundary Committee met in June to discuss the Boundary Change Scenario feedback received from community members and parents in May. Many themes emerged from the feedback collected, as did preferences for different scenarios:

Elementary Themes:

  • Analyze neighborhoods closely
  • Consider proximity of schools and homes
  • Prefer scenarios that keep current walking students walking
  • Reconsider creating islands
  • Ensure families from district programs are part of the process

The scenarios were ranked by preference:

  • Scenario A: preferred by 97
  • Scenario B: preferred by 297
  • Scenario C: preferred by 212

Middle School Themes:

  • Analyze neighborhoods closely
  • Consider geography
  • Prefer scenarios that keep current walking students walking
  • Consider proximity of school and homes
  • Ensure families from district programs are part of the process

The options were ranked by preference:

  • Option 1: preferred by 259
  • Option 2: preferred by 161
  • Option 3: preferred by 199
  • Option 4: preferred by 338

The boundary committee developed a list of other considerations for each school boundary.

Next steps:
The committee will revise and develop scenarios based on feedback received from the community this past spring. Scenarios will include the relationship between elementary, middle and high school boundaries. These scenarios will be shared and additional feedback will be collected from the community at open houses and online in September 2017. In October 2017, the last set of scenarios will be shared online for feedback from families and community members. The final boundary recommendation is scheduled to go to the School Board in November 2017.

Boundary Feedback Meetings
May 4, 2017
The information presented at both Redmond Boundary Process Community Meetings is posted here. The first set of slides covers background information, including how the district determines how many students a school can accommodate. The second set of slides presents three different options for elementary school boundaries. The last set of slides provides information on four possible middle school feeder patterns.

After you have reviewed the possible scenarios, you are invited to provide feedback to the committee on these options.

To provide input, fill out the Boundary Change Scenario Feedback form by May 19.

No decisions have been made. The committee will use your feedback as it continues to develop options. The committee’s goal is to determine their recommendations so that boundaries can be set before February 2018. That’s when kindergarten registration will begin for the 2018-19 school year.

These changes would go into effect for elementary in the 2018-19 school year and for middle in 2019-20.

LWSD Seeks Feedback on Redmond Area School Boundary Changes
April 17, 2017
In January 2017, a Lake Washington School District boundary committee began the work to recommend new school attendance boundaries in the Redmond area. The district is building two new elementary schools and one new middle school in the Redmond area due to enrollment growth. These new schools serve students drawn from existing schools. Neighborhood boundaries for all elementary and middle schools in Redmond could change as a result.

The boundary committee is preparing multiple new attendance boundary options. The boundary committee will hold two meetings to get feedback on those options. Attendees will view the options in an open house format. Committee members will be present to discuss these scenarios and answer questions. Both meetings will present the same information.

Boundary Feedback Meetings

  • May 4, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Redmond Middle School Cafeteria
  • May 9, 6:30-8:00 p.m., Evergreen Middle School Cafeteria

Parents and community members are invited to come to either meeting to learn more and review the options. Read the full press release about the May 4 and May 9 boundary meetings.

Redmond schools boundary criteria results
April 12, 2017
The first step in the committee’s process to develop new boundaries for the Redmond area is to review the criteria it will use to evaluate potential new boundaries. On January 31, parents received a message about the boundary process and a link to a survey. This survey asked for the boundary criteria to be ranked. Over 1,300 families responded to the survey. Respondents ranked the criteria in the following order:

Ranked Criteria Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5 Rank 6 Weighted Rank Total
1. Maintain neighborhoods to the extent possible 436 383 204 124 109 67 6004
2. Minimize the number of students and families affected 325 245 223 193 184 153 5167
3. Redistribute enrollment to match school capacity and accommodate growth 269 207 251 233 201 162 4916
4. Minimize transportation impacts 115 217 280 302 250 159 4460
5. Use natural boundaries to the extent possible 97 161 216 233 255 361 3821
6. Provide proximity of special programs to the extent possible 81 110 149 238 324 421 3415

 

Lake Washington School District is committed to providing high quality education to all students. As a public school system, we serve a diverse student body. We value diversity of race/ethnicity, gender, ability, and socio-economic status. State law and district policy specifies that attendance boundaries must not cause imbalance in diversity of student population. The committee will use criteria to evaluate boundary options.

The boundary committee will meet throughout the school year. Later in the spring, families will be invited to participate in a community feedback meeting. Boundary options will be available for review and written feedback at the meeting. An online feedback forum will be available for families who cannot attend one of the community meetings.

Redmond area school boundary process begins
January 20, 2017
Lake Washington School District will build three new schools in the Redmond area to meet the needs of its growing enrollment. New schools draw enrollment from neighborhoods now assigned to existing schools. As a result, a boundary committee is beginning the process to determine the boundaries for two new elementary schools and one new middle school.

The new middle school and one elementary school will be located in Redmond Ridge. The other elementary school will be in north Redmond. The two new elementary schools are scheduled to open in fall 2018. The new middle school will open in fall 2019.

Read the full press release