At its meeting March 16, the board approved a plan to adjust attendance boundaries to make the numbers a little more even.
“When Bogan was built in 2006 it was for an enrollment of 500,” Spivey said. “Enrollment was at the upper end toward 500 when it opened. It has declined some. Marshall has declined some.”
“The board asked if we could make it equitable,” she said, adding that after she made her report March 16, “The board saw equitable would not be possible.”
Spivey said the district’s geography makes it impossible to perfectly divide the district so that the same number of students attend each of the three elementaries.
As an example, she noted that making Bogan and Kramer equal would require lines to be close to Kramer.
“Some families would be a stone’s throw away from Kramer and go to Bogan,” she said.
By shifting some students in the preschool program, part of the numbers are being adjusted and residents on some of the district’s roads are being moved into other attendance areas.
The numbers show some current Kramer households shifting into the Marshall and Bogan attendance areas and some additional Marshall students moving to Bogan.
Each building will then have both morning and afternoon preschool sessions but the district, overall, will have the same number of preschool units. There are currently two morning and two afternoon units at Kramer with one half-day unit at each of the other two schools.
Because the number of units remains the same, there will be no need for additional staffing and she said there will be no additional costs for transportation, either.
The plan was presented to parents and staff members after the January introduction, when board members said they wanted comments on the issue from affected residents.
Spivey commented at her presentation March 16 that was done and more meetings are planned to explain it to everyone in preparation for it going into effect this fall.
She said a parent meeting is being scheduled at Bogan April 21 with tours of the building and a meeting with the principal to answer questions. More information will follow with specifics for the parent meeting.
Changes in the redistricting will see Kramer enrollment drop from the current 586 down to 537. Marshall will go up from 428 to 460 students while Bogan will rise from its current 354 to 411. The new boundaries will see 28 students, using current enrollment numbers, moving from Marshall to Bogan but with Marshall picking up 12 from Kramer.
The redistricting plan will see current Kramer students from the following area reassigned to Marshall: side streets from Route 27 to Chestnut, including Indian Trace Apartments (now with 14 students), Spartan (1), McKee (1), Miami Western (0) and Southpoint Parkway (0).
Spivey noted that area was at one time in the Marshall attendance area but was changed and is now just going back to that configuration.
Moving from Kramer to Bogan will be students in Springwood Subdivision to Bogan (10), Retreat Lane (0), Bonham Road and Somerville Road.
The change in the Marshall/Bogan boundary would move that boundary to Old Oxford Road, Minton, Boyle and Morman roads, which includes the following areas:
• Vizedom Road
• Constance Avenue
• Old Oxford Road (Vizedom to 177 and Serenity Hill)
• Old Oxford Road (Krucker to Vizedom and Deer Hill)
• Old Oxford (Morman to Krucker)
• Morman Road (Southbound to 130 and 130 to Stahlheber)
• Morman Road (Stahl to Minton)
• Boyle (130 to Stahlheber and Stahlheber and Minton)
• Minton (Morman to Boyle)
• Stahlheber (Boyle to 177 and Morman to Boyle)
Although the plan will go into effect this fall, Spivey said they will offer a transitional plan for the redistricting with parental choice for students in grades 4 and 5 as well as their younger siblings and would accept transfer requests, although they would not be guaranteed, for grades K-3.
Parental Choice will require personal transportation provided for grades 4 and 5 and siblings of students in those grades, she said. Staffing will be adjusted accordingly and transfer requests for grades K-3 will be permitted if staffing allows.
Because of this transitional plan, it will take two years to increase Bogan’s enrollment and decrease Kramer’s enrollment, but Spivey said the phasing in is being done to ease families into it, rather than making it an abrupt change.
“It’s only fair to grandfather in current student in K-3 if they are in the third grade there now and to allow siblings to stay with them,” the superintendent said.
The timeline for all of this depends, in part, on the Kramer construction schedule, which is expected to be confirmed at the April 20 board meeting. Once that is finalized, they will begin the communication plan with parents over April and May to get everything in place for the August opening of school. That will include, she said, a principal newsletter, newspaper articles, personal contact by phone to specific families, the information night for parents and follow-up in a parent letter with student assignments.
They will begin accepting enrollment registration April 1.
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