Area south of city and Cooks Pointe see biggest changes
Marysville school officials adopted an elementary redistricting plan Thursday night that should meet the needs of foreseeable development and allow the district the flexibility to deal with growth in the future.
“Our decisions are only as good as the next development,” Marysville Assistant Superintendent Jonathan Langhals said Thursday.
The plan approved will move 94 current elementary students into new buildings, reducing predicted strain on Northwood Elementary by moving students into Edgewood. If left unchanged, projections estimate that Edgewood would only grow by a handful of students in the next five years, while Northwood could gain more than 100 students, pushing it past its capacity.
In fact, trying to predict district growth was the biggest hurdle faced by the redistricting committee, comprised of school officials, community members and parents and led by representatives of Cooperative Strategies, an educational planning company.
Karen Daniel-Hamberg of Cooperative Strategies noted that five years ago, when Marysville last underwent redistricting, there was only one pocket of residential development in the works. The picture today is very different.
“There is a ton,” Daniel-Hamberg said of the number of housing projects.
With large developments planned on the north, east and south sides of the City of Marysville, the committee initially struggled to focus its plan of attack. At one point there were 25 different redistricting options on the table.
“It was probably our biggest challenge,” Langhals said.
Eventually though, the number of plans was trimmed to four and the committee sought the input of local citizens through an online survey and five community meetings — one at each elementary building in the district.
Parental concerns factored heavily into the decision-making process, as exemplified by feedback from the Raymond Elementary community, which did not want to see its boundaries changed at all.
Langhals said officials heard the concerns from Raymond “loud and clear” and were able to be accommodating, essentially because that school is at 91% capacity right now, but projections see enrollment falling in the next five years. Raymond’s boundaries do not change at all under the new plan.
The committee eventually narrowed its choice down to one recommendation, but even that scenario was tweaked because of parental concerns.
The favored plan recommended moving the Cooks Pointe development boundary from Navin Elementary into Mill Valley to allow for more flexibility with future growth. It also moved a large section of homes south of the city out of Northwood’s boundaries and into Edgewood.
“It makes a lot of sense to maximize Edgewood,” Langhals said.
The plan received the most positive response from the community at meetings and through the online survey, with one snag. According to Daniel-Hamberg, residents in the Adena Pointe did not like the plan because the boundary split the development in two.
With a slight adjustment to bring all Adena Pointe into the Northwood District, the board voted to approve the plan 5-0.
Langhals also said that moving forward, students from any new developments could be placed into whichever elementary school makes the most sense in terms of capacity.
In March, all affected families will receive letters from the district about the redistricting plan. In May, Edgewood and Mill Valley principals will hold welcome open house events for those students and families.
Marysville Superintendent Diane Allen (newly married, formerly Diane Mankins) said students in the district also have the option to apply in April for intra-district open enrollment. If space is available in the desired class, students could be allowed to change schools within the district. Students would be notified of the decision in August and parents would be responsible for transportation of the student.
Allen also said that staffing adjustments will be considered later. She said the district needs to see how large the incoming kindergarten class is before moving teachers. Once elementary staff is assigned to handle kindergarten, the district can move other teachers around to meet the needs of the various grades Allen said.
She added that money has been built into the budget for next year in case additional elementary staff is needed.