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Superintendent proposes converting Parkside Elementary to early childhood center; parents urge pause
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Corey Matthews recommended repurposing Parkside Elementary into an early childhood center and moving Parkside attendance-area students to Valley View, prompting strong public opposition citing class sizes, transparency concerns and nearby housing growth; the board will consider a final decision in March after community outreach.
Superintendent Dr. Corey Matthews on Tuesday presented a recommendation to repurpose Parkside Elementary as a centralized early childhood campus and to combine Parkside’s and Valley View’s attendance areas for the 2025-26 school year, a proposal that drew sustained public comment and several months of follow-up from the board.
"Parkside is not closing. Parkside is being repurposed to help meet that community," Dr. Matthews told the board, framing the recommendation as an administrative step to address persistent single-section grades at Parkside and to expand the district's early childhood capacity. He said the district projects Parkside would have multiple single-section grades next year, limiting collaborative planning time for teachers and the ability to group students for tiered interventions.
Matthews outlined academic gains districtwide and enrollment shifts since 2018, and said the recommendation would move the district’s ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) program from Parkside to Meadow Ridge and the early childhood program from Meadow Ridge to Parkside, creating a larger combined elementary at Valley View with capacity to absorb students. He said the administration will meet with Parkside and Valley View families in the coming weeks and return to the board with a final recommendation in March.
Public commenters said the plan felt rushed and lacked transparency and local data on pending housing developments. "With this closure, you are asking 6, 7, 8 year olds to go through another traumatic event," said Katie Baker, a Parkside parent and PTO leader, expressing concerns about children being moved for a third time in a short period and about class-size increases that she said could grow classes from roughly 18 students to as many as 27.
Real estate agents and residents urged the board to consider near-term housing projects that they said could increase Parkside-area enrollment in the coming 18 months. Tracy Rich, who identified herself as a Parkside graduate and local realtor, said city zoning changes could create roughly 70 new homes and other developments in Parkside’s service area and asked the board to account for that growth before repurposing the school.
Board members pressed administration for alternatives and for transition supports for students and staff. Administrators said they had considered redistricting alternatives and would publish the options they reviewed and a Q&A on the district website. Dr. Matthews said some Parkside staff would follow students to Valley View but others might be reassigned based on enrollment decisions.
No formal board action was taken on the recommendation Tuesday; the superintendent set a March timeline for a final decision and pledged to continue meetings with families and to provide more detailed data to the board and the community.
