As December draws closer, so does Issaquah School District Superintendent Steve Rasmussen’s final decision regarding proposed school boundary lines. He is expected to accept the Boundary Review Committee’s recommendations at the Dec. 10 school board meeting.
The district began a district-wide review of boundaries earlier this year, due to the 2010 opening of a new elementary school on the Sammamish Plateau and conversion of Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus into a middle school.
Often, when a new school opens, a district will simply re-draw the lines around that school. But, the Issaquah School District hadn’t looked at the boundaries comprehensively in so long that it just made sense to examine everything, said Sara Niegowski, Issaquah School District director of communications.
“There was some thought that it could be done locally, but the ripples from that are fairly big,” she said. “It made the most sense district-wide, and the way that it’s structured, it should last quite a while — no more piecemeal solutions.”
The new lines should establish feeder patterns that will keep most students together for their academic career. The majority of schools will be affected in the drawing of the new lines, but students already attending high school when the new boundaries are established will not be affected, Niegowski said. The final number of affected schools will be available at the Dec. 10 meeting.
The new elementary school will take students from a handful of different schools, while the Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus, slated to be a middle school, will alleviate some of the crowding at Beaver Lake Middle School and Pine Lake Middle School. Skyline High School and Issaquah High School will welcome freshmen back to their midst.
The Boundary Review Committee was formed in February of this year to assess the current boundary lines and determine how they should be changed. It held 10 meetings, almost all of which were attended by Rasmussen.
Niegowski said changing boundary lines is a difficult process, especially for the parents and students they directly affect, but the process has gone remarkably well.
“Boundary changes, no matter at what level, are a significant change,” Niegowski said. “But for the discomfort it has caused parents and students, this review has been done in one of the most thoughtful, in-depth ways. They’re really trying to look at all possibilities. But unfortunately, at the end of the day, there is going to be some discomfort.”
The committee, made up of the principal and one parent representative from every school in the district, welcomed the public to its meetings throughout the process. Niegowski said one of the big goals was to facilitate understanding in the community about how and why the lines were being drawn.
She said committee members drove through the different communities, envisioning bus routes and seeing exactly where the lines would separate students.
But one of the most important steps will come after the new boundary lines have been finalized. The committee will then begin to focus on transition plans that will help students adjust to their new schools. This might include holding events that future students would be invited to, enlisting current students as tour guides of the schools, and being available for parent questions, Niegowski said.
“Boundary reviews are never a process that communities rush into thinking ‘This will be wonderful,’” she said. “The best you can do is hope to get really thoughtful people together who will think about what is best, and makes the most sense, for students. And I think they’ve done a tremendous job.”
The Boundary Review Committee results will be discussed at 7 p.m. Dec. 10 at the Issaquah School District Administrative Building, 565 N.W. Holly St.
