Committee Recommends Family Grandfathering for New Ames Schools

An Ames School Board Boundary Committee will recommend that the school board allow family grandfathering when attendance boundaries for most Ames elementary schools change in 2014.

Board members met with Parents and Teacher Organizations in April and also took feedback from residents on new school boundaries and more.

Ames School District Superintendent Tim Taylor said no one had issues with the proposed boundaries set to change with the opening of the Miller Avenue school in 2014, but families were concerned about dividing their children among schools.

The committee had previously recommended that students be allowed to finish their fifth grade year at their old school and send younger children to the new attendance center. The new recommendation would also allow younger students of the same family attend classes in the same building so long as they are enrolled at the start of the 2014 school year, Taylor said.

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The Miller Avenue school is one of three new elementary school buildings that will serve the district. It would replace Edwards Elementary but wouldn't serve the same attendance zone as Edwards does now.

Some students who currently live in the Edwards Elementary School attendance zone would be moved to Sawyer Elementary School for example. According to a draft map, the boundary for the Miller Avenue school would take students from Edwards, Sawyer and Mitchell elementary schools. And Meeker Elementary School might also growth south, taking some students from Mitchell Elementary. The boundaries for Fellows Elementary school would not change in 2014.

The school board expects to discuss the new recommendation at its May 20 meeting.

See Current Ames Elementary School Boundary Map