The Alpine School District Board of Education opened a public hearing and heard multiple parents and residents urge adoption of a newly circulated “Option C” for proposed boundary adjustments affecting Black Ridge, Brookhaven, Pony Express, Silver Lake and Thunder Ridge elementaries. The board took public comment and then closed the hearing without adopting boundary changes.

Lo Sheffield, a Quail Hill resident who said she had collected a petition, told the board that "Option C keeps enrollment balanced and growth projections on track while maintaining logical feeder alignment so neighborhoods stay together and kids move forward with familiar faces." Sheffield said the plan would allow students who must move to “move once and not twice,” a change she said matters for children’s emotional stability and friendships.

Sarah Payne, speaking after Sheffield, said the revised Option C reflects parent feedback and keeps feeder schools aligned. "I appreciate that those bus routes are still available for the students that need them most, and that traffic will not be increased on Pony Express Parkway," Payne said, adding that keeping elementary feeders intact supports volunteer capacity and peer continuity.

Other speakers raised process and equity concerns. Chris Russen, who said he works in technology, asked the board for greater transparency if the district accepts resident-proposed options. "If the board is accepting another option from a resident, I would expect that the data or the primary data sets used for the proposals including projections should be available to the residents to be able to study," Russen said.

Preston Hurst urged the board to avoid disruptions to peer groups and said he was concerned that an especially aggressive variant of Option C might be designed to push the community back to options A or B. "If one of the larger issues can be avoided, why not avoid it?" Hurst said, urging a more nuanced approach to neighborhood lines.

Board members did not take a final vote on boundary changes at the hearing. The board adjourned the regular meeting briefly to hold the public hearing, heard the commenters, closed the hearing and then resumed the rest of the agenda.