Board hears recommended "amended Scenario 2a" to redraw elementary and middle school boundaries; about 2,000 students affected

Superintendent Kim Heil and district staff presented a recommended attendance-boundary plan for elementary and middle schools and said the board will vote on the recommendation at its May 20 meeting. The proposal — called "amended Scenario 2a" by staff — was developed after three rounds of community engagement and a core team review.

John Morstead, the district's executive director of finance and operations, described the recommended map and the expected scale of changes. "Approximately 2,000 elementary and middle school students would be impacted by this scenario," Morstead said, adding the figure is about 320 fewer than the district's January proposal and about 120 fewer than the March proposal. Staff said the recommended edits include moving the very northwestern part of Edinbrook's boundary to Osseo Middle School and keeping the Sundance neighborhood intact with Fernbrook Elementary.

Staff emphasized the recommendation seeks to minimize the number of students who must change schools, to eliminate non-adjoining geographic areas and to improve feeder patterns so students move with classmates from elementary to middle school. If the board approves the plan, staff said they will notify families and complete fine tuning on special education placements and bus routing ahead of implementation in fall 2026. "The review is taking place this evening and the vote will occur on May 20," Kay Valella, the district's executive director of community relations, said during the presentation.