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Board schedules weekly attendance-area work; high-school boundary changes deferred to spring
Summary
The board heard updates on elementary and middle school attendance-area committees and a timeline to deliver recommendations at the November board meeting; staff recommended delaying high-school boundary work until spring so feeder patterns and GIS modeling can be completed first.
The Pocatello District board on Monday heard updates on a multi-stage plan to review school attendance boundaries and said recommendations are expected at the November meeting.
AJ Watson, who is coordinating the enrollment and district attendance-area committees, told trustees the elementary committee of 13 (seven parents and six district staff) and the smaller middle-school committee are meeting weekly to analyze seven years of enrollment data and use the district GIS to test boundary adjustments. “We’re going to meet on Monday this next week for a very short amount of time because we want to let the elementary group have a week to get ahead,” Watson said, summarizing the committees’ near-term schedule and data needs.
Watson said the middle-school committee’s membership includes two parents and two teachers from each school and that about 80% of attendees at the middle-school meeting favored reviewing middle-school boundaries. Committee members want to see elementary boundary scenarios first so they can evaluate feeder patterns that would carry students into middle schools.
Board members and staff discussed whether to start high-school boundary changes now or delay them. Staff recommended postponing high-school boundary work until spring, noting registration timing and the extra complexity of athletics and activities. “Changing high-school boundaries is the most controversial you can possibly get,” a board member said, and staff said GIS layers for high school will be ready but that work is best begun after elementary and middle decisions are settled.
Next steps called for weekly committee meetings, additional requested data to support the GIS modeling, and a goal of presenting options and recommendations to the board at its November meeting. No formal vote was required; the discussion set the committee calendars and data requests that staff will fulfill ahead of the November presentation.
