With our record-breaking kindergarten enrollment for next year the issue of school capacity and boundary changes has leaped back into the limelight. Here’s my take on it.
White Oaks is the District’s smallest school, in terms of acreage, and it has essentially no ability to add new classrooms, either portables or newly-constructed ones. It also serves the area with the most school-age children per home. While it’s true that White Oaks enrolled 80 kindergarteners in certain recent years, the “real” long-term capacity of the school is closer to 70. The additional enrollment was made possible only because grades 1 through 4 were, at the time, a little smaller than average. That’s not something that can be counted on in any given year.
The Board has discussed enrollment patterns and possible boundary changes for a couple of years (I serve on a subcommittee specifically charged to look into the situation and make recommendations to the full Board). My sense is there was a general feeling among the trustees that some boundary shifts would have to take place. However, the only specific proposal to be considered and approved moved an area where families could choose to go to either Arundel or Heather to be part of Heather’s service area. This year’s dramatic surge in kindergarten enrollment has probably strengthened the feeling that we need to do something.
I’d summarize the parameters we’re dealing with as follows:
- Try to have students attend their neighborhood schools
- Try to have at least two, preferably three, classrooms available at each site to support enrichment programs and special activities (e.g., music, art, literacy support, RSP support, etc.)
- Try to avoid discontinuous or “gerrymandered” service areas
- White Oaks has the greatest number of school age children per parcel. Heather has the least number. Arundel and Brittan Acres fall somewhere in-between, but more on the high side.
- White Oaks is the school with the least ability to expand, while Heather has the most. Arundel and Brittan Acres again fall in-between.
When you put these factors together you’re driven to look at adjustments which reduce the size of White Oaks’ service area and increase Heather’s, without increasing or decreasing Brittan Acre’s or Arundel’s. That leads to two categories of alternatives:
- Re-assign part of White Oaks’ service area to Heather. This is the direct approach, but the resulting service areas look odd because they’re not contiguous. It also ultimately would shift middle school enrollment from Central to Tierra Linda, which may or may not be a good thing. Tierra Linda probably has more room to expand, but it also is the home to the Charter Learning Center, which has its own space needs.
- Re-assign part of White Oaks’ service area to Brittan Acres, part of Brittan Acre’s to Arundel, and part of Arundel’s and/or Brittan Acres to Heather. This preserves contiguity, but ends up affecting more families. It offers more potential to leave the middle school situation unaffected, which could be important because both middle schools are at or above current capacity.
Of course, boundary changes don’t address the overall increase in enrollment the District is experiencing. To handle that, you have to add capacity in one or more places, either through portables or new construction. But given the size of the various school sites, little if any of the additional capacity could be put at White Oaks. There simply isn’t room.
All the trustees and the superintendent appreciate that boundary changes are difficult for families. That’s why they’re avoided whenever possible. But in our situation I don’t think that’s possible any longer (we’ve been dancing with this for five or more years now, but the problem persists). Historically, the “jewel streets” in White Oaks’ area have switched back-and-forth between White Oaks and Brittan Acres, so that’s certainly a possible approach. But there could be others, as well (e.g., the streets immediately south of Brittan Avenue). Whatever ends up happening, there will be time for public comment and input before any decisions are made.