Meeting Three: June 24, 2020
To open, Superintendent Steve Plank reiterated the purpose and process for the committee. He introduced the non-committee members/employees who are attending the meeting as a resource to the committee. Facilitator Drew Howick then laid out the agenda for the evening. Julie Thomas, district communications coordinator, shared where the public can find committee information on the BASD website and encouraged committee members to share information.
Responses to Questions
Steve Plank responded to five questions raised after the May meeting. All of the questions have been collected on this Questions and Responses document. Questions from May:
Q. Do students who do not go to their home school get bussed? And if so, why?
A. If eligible for bussing and space is available on the bus, students can receive bussing.
Q. Can we add more students to Lyons?
A. Lyons has capacity for 150 students. At this point, there is room for more students to attend Lyons.
Q. Can we look at wrap around at Lyons if numbers support?
A. The district has had conversations about expanding wrap-around care (by partnering with community providers) at locations, such as Lyons, but it was not feasible at the time of those conversations.
Q. Has the district ever offered its own wrap-around care or after-school care?
A. District administration is not aware of the district ever providing its own wrap-around care.
Q. Amount of in-district students? Survey of parents who in-district transfer?
A. As MDRoffers Consulting has presented, about a third of current non-Montessori elementary school students do not attend the school assigned on the current attendance area map. Many, if not most, of these are due to the district’s flexible bus routes not in-district transfer requests (an application process that states the reason). The number of in-district transfer requests varies each year, and not all requests are granted. We have not surveyed parents who wish to in-district transfer or otherwise not attend their home school.
Transportation Costs
Before sharing transportation cost information, Steve Plank reminded attendees of the evaluation criteria which includes a desire to use the school buildings at a comfortable capacity that allows space for services, minimize the impact on students (recognizing that by adding a fifth elementary school one-fifth of students will change school), and fiscal responsibility.
Steve Plank shared information related to transportation costs. A single bus route costs $67,142. Adding/eliminating one bus route impacts the district’s overall budget (for example, adding 3-5 bus routes would have a significant impact).
Two questions were asked:
Q. Does the district address bus routes with lower ridership?
A. The bus company annually reviews routes to adjust and balance riders based on needs.
Q. To what degree should the committee focus on bussing?
A. The committee’s primary concern is best meeting the needs of families and students. While a third of the evaluation criteria relates to financial responsibility, the committee needs to determine the solution that works, then work with the district to understand logistics. Mark Roffers offered that each option would describe some of the pros/cons, transportation efficiency being one.
Presentation of Option A:
Mark Roffers reminded the committee of what they have already studied: Current attendance boundaries, Enrollment Projections at 1100 students to accommodate in five elementary schools (not including Montessori students who will attend school at Dyer). He also restated the need to rebalance enrollment. Waller Elementary is over capacity and has the highest percentage of free and reduced lunch while Lyons Center Elementary is under capacity with the nearby student population is not expected to grow significantly. Cooper Elementary and Winkler Elementary’s enrollment capacity stays the same as its current traditional (non-Montessori) student enrollment.
Before presenting Option A, Mark shared some comments about options in general, underscoring that there are a variety of possible approaches for assigning students. The committee will evaluate options suggested by the committee (these options do not come from the consultant or district administration). Each option will provide a map assigning neighborhoods to an elementary school and a “dashboard” for evaluating the option.
Key to map:
- Each neighborhood number that remains the same on all maps (black number)
- Enrollment number to indicate the number of students in the neighborhood (white number in the grey box)
- A triangle indicates if this option is a change.
- Neighborhood color corresponds with the school color (Red = Lyons, Purple = Waller, Green = Winkler, Yellow = Dyer, Copper Brown = Cooper)
To total the number of projected students by school the committee can determine whether the
- Color on map is “home school”, or
- Color on map is recommended school, but there is flexibility
To this point, Steve shared that at the June 8 meeting, the BASD School Board received an update on the Attendance Boundary Committee. They were asked whether students will be expected to attend the school they are assigned to or will families have the flexibility to attend wherever they want. The board intends to support the solution the committee presents with the understanding that students should attend the school where assigned. This is to honor the intention to have equitable services among the schools. They expect the committee will have considered the variables and determined the best-case scenario. For general circumstances, allowing families to choose their own school undermines that work.
Option A Overview
Link to Option A. To introduce Option A, Mark Roffers provided an overview of the option:
- The boundary for Dyer is based on a logical walking zone, and unifies Eagle Lake
- Cooper and Waller boundaries are closer to the school and based on logical walking and bussing zones. Waller’s enrollment is reduced. It factors what school students currently attend (rather than the current assigned school).
- Yellow represents Dyer and extends to the eastern part of district.
- For bussing logistics, the State St. corridor is clustered together.
- Winkler’s boundary contracts (closer to Bohner’s Lake)
- Lyons Center’s boundary extends farther north.
Before a break and breaking out into groups, Mark shared how to use the Dashboard to evaluate the option. The Dashboard compiles known information around the three evaluation criteria. There is space for the committee member to write notes about the option.
Break Out Groups Summary
After spending 30 minutes in break-out groups, the committee reconvened and shared these summaries.
Group One
This group agreed that Option A met criteria 1 and 3. As for criteria 2, one felt Option A met the criteria and three were uncertain. The discussion around criteria 2 was around impact on students, wondering what amount of disruption are we comfortable with? They had questions around flexibility for families who have a student pre-assigned to a school (for example, IED student will attend Waller and Montessori will attend Dyer) to have siblings attend the same school.
Group Two
This group unanimously agreed that Option A met criteria 1 and 2. For criteria 3, they were unanimously don’t know. Their discussion was about the distribution of EEL students, students with IEPs, ensuring economic diversity. They wondered about wrap-around care such as transportation to/from daycare from Winkler and Lyons. They questioned why neighborhood 11 was assigned to Dyer and suggested it go to Cooper or split neighborhood 11 in half between Dyer and Cooper.
Group Three
Group 3 was mixed on criteria 1 (yes/not sure). They discussed the demographics of Waller school with concern that in Option A there is a higher number of potentially lower-income students assigned to Waller (gaining Cooper’s lower-income students as well as the lower-income neighborhoods currently assigned to Waller). They would like more actual numbers of how many students will change location. (For example XX Waller students will move to Dyer, XX Cooper students will move to Dyer, XX Cooper students will move to Lyons, etc.). They felt Option A was fiscally responsible (with bussing clusters). They questioned whether neighborhood 11 makes sense going to Dyer with a busy road to cross.
The consultants acknowledged the work of the groups. The feedback provides insight that informs the process. Specifically, they learned more about neighborhoods that have a high concentration of lower-income families. In closing, the committee was encouraged to propose radically different option suggestions.
The committee members were asked to provide feedback related to what they found useful, how to improve the meeting, additional option considerations, and comfort level for meeting in person on July 15, the next scheduled meeting.
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