Superintendent John Marshhausen told the Dublin City Schools Board of Education that the district has received more than 3,000 responses to an online redistricting survey and will release a traffic study and revised map proposals before a planned Nov. 10 decision.

Why it matters: the redrawing of high‑school boundaries is intended to balance enrollment across Kaufman, Jerome and Scioto high schools after a recent Scioto addition. The process will affect which students attend which high school, transportation routes, and the distribution of student socioeconomic characteristics and support services.

Marshhausen said the district has followed board policy that places responsibility for redistricting with the superintendent but relies on an internal planning team and an external mapping contractor to analyze options. "Since April...I've accepted the responsibility of redistricting," he said, adding that the team has released three draft maps and scored them against eight criteria that include facility utilization, contiguous zones, feeder patterns, transportation efficiency and not worsening socioeconomic balance.

The internal planning team scored the draft maps on a 0–1,200 scale and reported scores to the board; the public feedback favored two drafts and strongly opposed a third, according to presentation slides shared at the meeting. Marshhausen said the team will take Map 1 and Map 3 as base maps, work with the contractor Cropper GIS to make revisions that improve scores, and resubmit results for additional internal review and public comment.

Key next steps and deadlines Marshhausen announced:
- Public comment on the Cropper GIS feedback portal remains open through Friday, Oct. 24.
- New comments will be shared with the planning team on Monday, Oct. 27.
- The district will hold a public leadership conversation and present revised proposals at the board meeting on Oct. 29.
- The superintendent aims to provide a final map on Nov. 10.

The district also commissioned a traffic study covering 17 locations and said it will publish the full report and underlying data. Marshhausen and staff described travel‑time deltas in draft areas: in one comparison, the study reported roughly a 4‑minute morning difference and up to an 8‑ to 12‑minute difference during peak periods between alternate high‑school assignments for some neighborhoods. The study also assessed bikeways, sidewalks, lighting and major crossings.

A central point of the meeting was how socioeconomic data should factor into decisions. Board members and staff repeatedly discussed a criterion described in board materials as "consider economic, cultural, and ethnic diversity; ensure schools are inclusionary and not adversely affected by redistricting decisions." Marshhausen told the board that race cannot be used as a determinative factor under the law but that socioeconomic measures (the district has used free‑and‑reduced‑price‑lunch data) can be considered. "It would not be legal for us to use race as a determining factor," he said. "Socioeconomic status can legally be in consideration in the work that we do."

Several trustees pushed for clearer definitions and for more analysis beyond free‑and‑reduced lunch counts. Board member Messick said the district should ensure socioeconomic review is not "performative" and that any adjustments actually improve student experiences and supports, not just numbers on a map. Staff noted limitations: student special‑education and some sensitive demographics cannot be used as assignment criteria, and the district cannot perfectly predict how many current upperclassmen will remain in place if boundaries change; the plan assumes a phased implementation across three to four years so incoming freshmen are the first full class assigned under any new map.

Trustees asked the superintendent to incorporate community feedback in the next round and to provide clearer visuals showing how elementary and middle schools feed into high schools under the two maps the district will keep under consideration. One trustee flagged that, as presented, Map 3 would make Bailey Elementary the only elementary school split among three high schools in the long run and asked staff to identify pockets of the district that would be disproportionately affected by multiple splits.

Marshhausen acknowledged missteps earlier in the process and said he would expand opportunities for public engagement and meet individually with trustees before the Oct. 29 meeting. "What we do will matter," he said, adding that the district must demonstrate its work to rebuild trust.

Board members asked staff to return with revised map iterations and supporting data — including updated feeder‑pattern flows from elementary through high school, a more detailed breakdown of the internal planning team scoring, and the traffic‑study data — before the Oct. 29 meeting.

Ending: The board did not take a formal vote on a final plan at the session. Marshhausen said the district will publish the traffic study, the internal scoring detail, and revised proposals and will accept public feedback through Oct. 24 before the next internal review and public presentation.