Meeting Two: May 18, 2020
The committee met by Zoom on Monday, May 18, 2020. To begin the meeting, Superintendent Steve Plank restated the charge of the committee which is to determine which school BASD’s 4K-5 students will attend beginning Fall 2021 when the district is reconfigured as five 4K-5 elementary, one 6-9 middle school, one 9-12 high school. Decisions need to take into consideration the evaluation criteria:
- Enrollment/Building Utilization
- Minimize the impact on students and families
- Fiscally responsible
Following brief introductions of non-committee members in attendance, facilitator Drew Howick from Howick Associates shared what had taken place since the last meeting. He had had several conversations with Superintendent Plank to debrief the April 20 meeting, review feedback from the committee, and plan the May 18 meeting. He outlined the agenda for the May 18 meeting, which includes devoting time to questions raised after the last meeting.
Julie Thomas, BASD’s communications coordinator, shared an update on the Attendance Boundary website organization and promotion. The site had 508 visitors in the first month, 179 directed from a Facebook post. Notes and resources will be added to the website after every meeting. There is a form so the community can ask questions.
Steve Plank shared a document with the questions asked at the last meeting. He organized the questions into nine themes: 1. Assets 2. Building Equity 3. Boundary Map 4. Enrollment 5.Special Education 6. Student Transfers 7. Grandfathering/Flexibility 8. Transportation and 9. Bus Transfers. The document will be updated as more questions surface.
Mark Roffers from MDRoffers Consulting shared a presentation with the committee based on his findings when studying the economic outlook for the Burlington and nearby communities and future land use (where new neighborhoods may be developed within the district).
Racine, Kenosha, Walworth County employment is projected to grow 13% by 2029. Since 2010, Racine County’s population increased by 0.6% and City of Burlington increased by 4.4% while BASD’s enrollment has gone down 14.7%. This reflects the declining birth rate and how Burlington has a “Baby Boom” generation population.
The impact of FoxConn, 20 miles away, will be minimal on Burlington. At this point, the job targets aren’t being met and people will likely choose to live closer to FoxConn. BASD may see modest growth on the east side (Eagle Lake area). It is hard to say what impact the COVID-19 pandemic will have long-term. A lot of projects have been put on hold, but construction projects continue to be completed.
Over the last 10 years new housing units have mostly been single-family homes and duplex condos (empty nester). The City of Burlington has about 20 homes built per year and the Town of Burlington has about 12 houses per year. This is not enough to increase student enrollment.
Housing developments being built (45 houses over 2 years) where BASD may see new enrollment is in Fox River Landing, The Glen at Stonegate, and The Meadow at Pine Brook Condo.
There are a couple of possible housing developments (Falcon Ridge Condominiums and Schaefer Farm) that could happen in the next decade. Mark Roffers shows what areas are available for future land use. Most rural farm land won’t be heavily developed because there are no public utilities, no current developers, and the current market preference.
Mark Roffers explained how they predict enrollment in September 2021 when the new configuration begins. First, it is easy to estimate grades 1-5 as the students are already enrolled. Estimating 4K & 5K (who are not yet in the district) is a challenge. Considering the flat to declining birthrate and flat housing growth, they predict a 22-student decline across the grades 4K-5 population.
They anticipate starting September 2021 with 1077 grades 4K-5 students (this assumes 180 students will attend Montessori and 30 students attending private 4K). This is similar to enrollment now. He noted that neighborhood 39 and 49 are projected to grow with 10-12 students and neighborhood 13 is projected to decrease by 19 students.
Of interest was a table shared which shows what school students attend in each neighborhood. In some cases, the majority of the students don’t attend the assigned school.
The committee entered breakout rooms to discuss: What did you learn/reactions to what you’ve learned? What questions do you have? What would you like to see as an option?
Summaries after the committee reconvened:
Group 1
The group hesitated to decide to boundary changes until they understood how equitable special ed services would be. Connie Zinnen, Assistant Superintendent, answered some questions around how services will be distributed among elementary schools explaining that the intent is to make schools as equitable as possible, though the ID program (which serves the special education students with Intellectual Disabilities) would likely remain in one location and likely at Waller. The group would like to have different options presented in maps (option 1, option 2) to look at it.
Group 2
This group talked at length about busing considering current practices and how to change. They wondered if students who in-district transfer get busing? (In-district transfer means the student doesn’t attend the school to which is assigned to them based on where the home is located.)
Group 3
Group 3 also talked about busing recognizing that the distance (and therefore bus ride) from Eagle Lake is long. Early bussers leave early 7:10 am and arrive home at 4 pm. They are dismissed early from school and miss the end of the day. Students from Eagle Lake have a lot of transfers. The group would like to eliminate early busing. One family thought they would attend Winkler, then found out they were assigned to Waller because of the difference between bing on a E/W road versus a N/S road. The current district map shows a patchwork of three different colors (schools) in the eastern half. They were surprised about the anticipated new development at the Schaeffer Farm (section 55).
The committee discussed whether real estate listings specify the elementary school or the district (that is up to the realtor). Jackey Syens, principal at Cooper Elementary, agreed that the early bus is disruptive. Early busing (some students leaving early to catch the bus) happens at Waller and Cooper – not at Winkler or Lyons.
Next meeting is Wednesday, June 24.
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