Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Superintendent Pierce informs Wilder parents of her decision for temporary boundary changes - process will take months.

Superintendent Pierce recently wrote Wilder parents informing them of her decision to engage in a temporary boundary change involving Rosa Parks Elementary and Wilder Elementary. This boundary change will move some Rosa Parks students to Wilder. All Wilder students will continue to attend Wilder.

Dr. Pierce will take her recommendation to the school board in January. The goal is to have this process completed prior to kindergarten registration in February.  A temporary boundary committee will first meet on October 25 to process the reboundary. 

The committee will be made up of the principals from the two involved schools (Tina Livingston and Steve Roetcisoender), the director of school support from the Redmond Learning Community (Jon Holmen), staff members from business services, transportation and communications (Barbara Posthumus, Jeff Miles, Kathryn Reith). It will be led by an outside consultant, Bob Collard, formerly Assistant Superintendent both for Lake Washington and for Everett School District.

 At the end of November, the district will hold a public meeting to introduce possible boundary scenarios. At that meeting and through the website, the committee will gather parent feedback on the scenarios.

Current enrollment at Rosa Parks is 795 students, and district projections show enrollment growing to 1034 by the 2015-16 school year.  The district's long-term solution for this issue is to build a new school on district-owned property in Redmond Ridge East as part of a bond measure in February 2014. If that bond passes, a new school would open in the fall of 2016. 

In the meantime, however, Rosa Parks has filled ten portable classrooms and has no additional room to accommodate students while enrollment continues to increase.  Wilder Elementary has a current enrollment of 347 students, and projections show enrollment decreasing to 238 by the 2015-16 school year.

By Bob Yoder

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