School Board Will Consider Delaying Boundary Changes

After hearing vociferous protests from parents, the Elk Grove Unified School District will likely delay until the 2012-13 school year proposed changes in attendance boundaries aimed at balancing enrollment in the district's high schools and middle schools.

Parents showed up in droves for a Tuesday night board meeting to discuss the changes, which would increase the student population at , and Sheldon high schools while relieving overcrowding at and .

The parents, many from Joseph Sims Elementary School, raised concerns ranging from transportation difficulties to the safety and quality of education at Laguna Creek and its feeder middle school Harriet Eddy, which have lower test scores than some other district schools.

A major theme was the social bonds kids--and parents--form with others in their school's attendance area.

"Laguna West is one community and you want us to go to three different middle schools and three different high schools," Keather Kehoe, whose daughter attends Sims and would be affected by the boundary changes, told the board to applause from the audience. "That is very disruptive to our community."

John Butler, whose older daughter attends Franklin High School, addressed the board flanked by his wife, Jodie, and younger daughter, Andrea--both dressed in matching purple Franklin High sweatshirts.

If the boundary changes were to pass, Butler said, his family would have two teens in two different high schools at the same time--meaning longer carpools and less time to volunteer at each school.

The proposal currently before the board would transfer several hundred students in the Joseph Sims, Elliott Ranch and Carroll Elementary school areas, who are currently set to attend Franklin High School, to the Laguna Creek and Cosumnes Oaks attendance areas.

Some students in the Irene B. West Elementary School area would attend Harriet Eddy and Laguna Creek rather than Edward Harris Jr. Middle School and Monterey Trail High School, and some students in the Robert Fite Elementary area would attend Sheldon High School and its feeder middle school, T.R. Smedberg, rather than going to Katherine Albiani Middle School and Pleasant Grove High.

The board also heard from a few families of Laguna Creek students who supported the boundary changes, saying the school has long been deprived of resources due to its smaller population.

"We cannot achieve social, athletic or academic equity the way things are now," Roberta Potter, whose two children graduated from Laguna Creek, told the board. "The promise of public education is equity, not where your kids go to school."

Salvador Rosas, a senior at Laguna Creek, said it hurt to hear parents make negative comments about his school.

"Just because I come from a lower socioeconomic background doesn't mean my education is any less important than any of your children's education," he said, speaking as much to the assembled parents as to the board.

Board members said they too were concerned about equity, while wanting to give families that would be transferred to a different school time to prepare.

While the board did not vote on the proposed new boundaries, they did direct staff to study and return with data on two options: a simple yearlong delay, or delaying the changes plus allowing all current seventh and eighth graders to remain in the same attendance area until they graduate high school.

"Changing boundaries is my least favorite part of this job," board member Jeanette Amavisca said. "But we have to provide the same kind of education for our students no matter what part of the district they live in."

The board also is considering setting up a committee made up of district and parent representatives to develop long-term plans to stabilize attendance at different schools.

The move came after many parents complained the district had blindsided them with the proposed changes.

The board will return to the issue at its next meeting Feb. 1.