Consultant outlines multi-step plan to study school attendance zones, seeks public feedback

At Wednesday's Board of Education meeting, Tyler Technologies vice president and general manager Ted Thien presented the district's plan to study elementary attendance zones, saying the goal is to produce transparent, community-informed options for the board to consider. Thien said the study responds to decade-long enrollment declines that now show signs of reversing, uneven building capacity, differences in where specialized programs are offered and transportation inefficiencies. "There have been no decisions made about any potential changes in enrollment zones at this time," he said. "The goal of the committee and the consulting team is to be incredibly intentional and transparent in the process that we're going to follow. We want to make sure that we get community feedback and community buy in into what we do." Tyler's team described a four-step process: confirm updated enrollment projections, define neighborhood planning units, model options (including class-size scenarios) and present options to the public. The consultants said they will model class-size targets currently in the 18'0 range and show impacts for 20'2 and 22'4 students per class to illustrate trade-offs between class size, transportation and the extent of boundary changes. Timelines presented call for modeling in October, initial public feedback and committee sessions in November, and final recommendations to the board in December. Thien introduced the consulting team members who will support modeling and transportation analysis, including Tim Ammon, Dr. Ross Haber, Doug Camlin and Jenny Densmore. He said the district also created a 28-member zone committee that includes administrators, building-level staff, teachers, parents and two high-school representatives to review options and priorities. During questions, board member Catherine Neto asked whether the lab school follow-up committee had continued its work; others asked about how "program equity differences" are being handled. The consultants noted that some programs'for example English learner (EL) services and some special-education cohorts'are currently housed only in certain schools because that is where the majority of those students live and where critical mass makes operating the program feasible. "E and L currently is only offered in three of our buildings and not five," a consultant said, adding the team will evaluate whether program distribution should change as boundaries are adjusted. Board members and residents asked the team to provide multiple ways to participate in public feedback, including Zoom or other online options; Thien said the team will consider hybrid or multiple-format sessions to maximize reach. The timeline presented will return draft options to the board in November and final recommendations in December for the board's decision. No formal action was taken on attendance zones at the meeting.