Parents urge board to reconsider middle‑school boundary changes, citing social disruption and transportation

Parents from several neighborhoods asked the Lakeville Area Schools board on March 25 to reconsider proposed boundary changes that would shift students into different middle- and high‑school pathways.

Several speakers described specific neighborhoods that would move to Maguire Middle School under the proposed model and said the change would separate children from established classmates at two pivotal transitions — elementary to middle school and middle to high school. Justin (a parent from the Avonlea neighborhood) said his child would “be going to middle school with very few, if any, of his existing classmates” and that repeated separations “can cause emotional strain and ... challenge the sense of belonging” for students.

Jessica Connolly, who said she lives in Glacier Creek and has three young children, described her family’s recent experience shifting between elementary schools because of capacity and boundary changes. Connolly said one child became one of only a few second graders moved into Cherry View Elementary last year and “didn't feel like this was her school” after losing friends. She called the proposed middle-school mapping “extremely disruptive and inefficient in terms of transportation,” and asked the board to avoid ‘‘punishing the kids in our neighborhoods because of poor planning.”

Board members acknowledged the concerns and referenced prior presentations on enrollment growth and boundary options, but did not take formal action on the zoning proposals during this meeting. The topic was raised under the public comment portion of the agenda; state open‑meeting rules and board procedure permit public comment but do not require immediate board response or action.

Superintendent Michael Baumann and other board members previously presented enrollment and boundary models in earlier sessions; parents urged the board to give particular weight to keeping cohorts intact through middle and high school transitions so children retain friend groups and continuity of services. Several speakers also mentioned transportation impacts when students are assigned to the furthest school from their neighborhood.

No vote on rezoning occurred at the March 25 meeting; parents and some board members said they expect the district to continue community engagement and share more refined maps and transportation analyses before any final boundary decision.