Boundary plans move to task force

Talk about it

More than 200 people attended the District 833 Oversight Committee meeting Jan. 15 to review three plans to redraw attendance boundaries for School District 833 elementary schools.

Most parents said they didn’t want their children to change schools. Only the south half of the Stonemill Farms subdivision in Woodbury wants to move.

Under two of the three plans, 72 children from the south half of Stonemill Farms, now attending Bailey Elementary School, would move to Liberty Ridge Elementary School. It would unite the Stonemill Farms neighborhood, said Mitchell Urbanz, neighborhood spokesperson.

The three plans were renamed — from one, two and three to red, white and blue — to avoid the suggestion of rank.

Under the White Plan, referred to by Stonemill residents as the “horseshoe plan” because of the shape of the suggested Bailey attendance area, Stonemill students would remain at Bailey.

After the 16-member Elementary Boundary Task Force developed three plans, they were slated for review by a 140-member Oversight Committee, made up of those who volunteered to be on it.

But about 60 more people came to the meeting at Cottage Grove Junior High School. Dave Bernhardson, district boundary-process facilitator, invited them to participate in the review process.

The district’s schedule calls for three plans to go to the Middle School Boundary Committee, which began its work on Tuesday, Jan. 22. Its plan will be reviewed by the Oversight Committee and moved on to a High School Boundary Committee.

The school board is expected to discuss three plans April 10, followed by public meetings at the district’s four junior high schools, according to Superintendent Tom Nelson.

Bernhardson asked the expanded oversight committee, to review each plan and write down comments and suggested changes.

Task Force members adjourned to a classroom and reviewed comments and suggestion sheets.

After reading the comments, task force members, working in small groups, said most of them reflected parents not wanting their students to change schools. Suggestions centered on moving children from other neighborhoods.

“We’ve already had a lot of these arguments,” said Dale Schmitz, task force member. “We had issues but we hashed them out by looking at the whole district.”

“No plan is perfect,” said Mary Burazin.

“I haven’t seen anything that would make me change my mind,” said Fred Gillespie.

Other members were concerned that the people making suggestions and comments would think they had wasted their time if the task force made no changes.

“I don’t think we’re discrediting them, but we had time to hash this out,” Schmitz said.

Bernhardson said it’s important that the oversight committee got to express their views.

Nelson suggested the task force take additional time to review oversight comments before taking action on the plans.

“We need to read them and maybe make recommendations,” said Mike Vogel, assistant to the superintendent for operations, who is also facilitating the boundary process.

The task force met at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22, at the District Service Center to consider amending the plans before sending them onto the Middle School Boundary Task Force’s first meeting at 7:30 p.m.

Attendance boundary plans reviewed by the oversight committee Jan. 15

All plans

All three plans share common changes including that the children in the Crestview Elementary School attendance area south of 80th Street in Cottage Grove would move to Hillside Elementary School.

Pineridge and Vantage Point/Woodridge Coach Homes subdivisions would move to Hillside and Armstrong Elementary School’s attendance border would be expanded to add areas slated for future growth.

No changes are slated for Pine Hill and Pullman elementary schools.

Newport Elementary School, now with 268 students, would have degrees of declining enrollment under all the plans. The school needs 242 students to have two sections of each grade, according to Mike Vogel, assistant to the superintendent for operations.

“Our challenge is to have enough students for a two-section school,” said Tom Nelson, superintendent, in an interview Friday, Jan. 18. “There is absolutely no intention of closing the school. It’s a great school and they are doing great things.”

With a large rural area of eastern Cottage Grove and Woodbury assigned to Grey Cloud Elementary School in Cottage Grove, there would be room at the school to accommodate growth east of County Road 19.

The attendance areas most affected in Woodbury are in the eastern part of the city and in the Cottage Grove Elementary School attendance area in Cottage Grove.

Red Plan

Under this plan, the largest number of kids, approximately 1,700, would be moved.

Children from areas close to Bailey Elementary School would move from Newport.

Cottage Grove Elementary School, now with 634 students would be at 646 in 2010-2011 and Liberty Ridge would be crowded again in 2011-2012.

Pinecliff, Pinetree Pond, Kingsborough Woods and Pepper Ridge-Northwest Covenant-Pinetree Pond Estates-Pinetree Pond Annex subdivisions move from Cottage Grove to Grey Cloud.

Grand Reserve, Gables at Eagle Valley, Notting Hill, Fairway Meadows, Woodcrest, Cherry Hill, Kingsfield, Highland Knoll, Oak View, the southern part of Stonemill Farms and some undeveloped areas would move from Bailey to Liberty Ridge Elementary School.

Eagle Valley, Villages at Eagle Valley and Wedgewood Park would move from Liberty Ridge to Middleton Elementary School.

Bailey’s Arbor would move from Bailey to Middleton.

Highland Heights and Brighton’s Landing would move from Middleton to Royal Oaks Elementary School.

Donnays Tall Trees would move from Red Rock Elementary School to Royal Oaks.

Pinecrest Villas, Interlachen Woods-Interlachen Ridge-Country Place, Pines of Inverness and Summit Pointe-Lake Inverness Estates would move from Royal Oaks to Woodbury Elementary School.

White Plan

This plan, would move the fewest number of students at 735 but Liberty Ridge, now crowded, would open in 2009-2010 with 839 students, two more students than this year with kindergartens off campus in an annex and sixth-grades already at Lake Junior High School.

Cottage Grove, now crowded, would get some relief but creep up to 636 students in 2012-2013, two more students than this year.

The Highlands would be added to the list of areas recommended to move from Cottage Grove to Grey Cloud in the Red Plan.

The northern part of Savanna Oaks would move from Middleton to Red Rock.

Lake Place, Valley Ridge Estates and Lakeview Knolls would move from Liberty Ridge to Middleton.

Grand reserve, Gables at Eagle Valley, Notting Hill, Fairway Meadows, Woodcrest and Cherry Hill would move from Bailey to Middleton.

Blue Plan

The Blue Plan, which would move approximately 1,500 students, relieves pressure on Liberty Ridge and Cottage Grove Elementary through 2012-13.

The Highlands would be added to the list of areas recommended to move from Cottage Grove to Grey Cloud in the Red Plan.

Lake Place, Valley Ridge Estates and Lakeview Knolls would move from Liberty Ridge to Royal Oaks.

Highland Heights would move from Middleton to Royal Oaks.

Donnays Tall Trees would move from Middleton from Red Rock to Royal Oaks.

Savanna Oaks would move from Middleton to Red Rock.

Eagle Valley and Villages at Eagle Valley would move from Liberty Ridge to Middleton.

Grand Reserve, Gables at Eagle Valley, Notting Hill, Fairway Meadows, Woodcrest and Cherry Hill would move from Bailey to Middleton.

Kingsfield, Highland Knoll, Oak View, eastern Fairway Meadow, southern Stonemill Farms and Bailey’s Arbor would move from Bailey to Liberty Ridge.

Wedgewood Park would move from Liberty Ridge to Bailey.

About 70 students would move from Middleton and Newport to Bailey.

Tags: boundaries, woodbury, plans, task, red, white, blue