Board reviews routing maps and floor plans for possible elementary closures; narrows options to Preston and Price

The Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education on July 9 examined routing maps and draft floor plans that show how closing any one of three elementary schools — Preston, Price or Richardson — would reassign students across the district and affect bus routes, building capacity and special‑education placements. After extended discussion, board members said they would narrow the formal options for further study to Preston and Price and hold neighborhood meetings to collect community feedback.

Transportation supervisor Marjorie Johnson showed the board a step‑by‑step demonstration of the district's routing software and draft boundary “sandboxes,” saying the program lets staff test different boundaries without changing live data. “I like to keep it somewhere between a half hour to 45 minutes,” Johnson said, describing her informal target for elementary ride times and adding that extreme cases can reach an hour.

Those ride‑time, routing and capacity considerations inform the staff projections: Johnson told the board that closing Preston would displace 282 Cuyahoga Falls students from Preston itself and produce about 508 reassignments across the district in the staff…