District considers boundary changes

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BROOKINGS – The Brookings School District’s boundary committee, comprised of school district officials, school building administrators and community members, has compiled five different options for the district’s elementary school attendance boundaries.

During the Monday night school board meeting, committee member Mary O’Neill presented to the school board those options as an informational presentation, not an action item.

More information should become available in January, Brookings School District Superintendent Klint Willert said, as well as a public forum on each of the options, also to be held in January. The date and time of the forum has yet to be determined. A final decision on which boundaries to select could then be made in February.

In its committee meetings, the committee wanted to create boundary lines that kept disruptions for families at a minimum. They also wanted to have Title I services for low-income students at all three elementary schools and create more balanced enrollment numbers at those schools.

As they went through the process, however, they realized they could not achieve Title I services in all three schools and still meet those other priorities they had in place.

According to Willert, one of the things they kept in mind when creating each of these new options for boundary lines was where the static and dynamic areas of residential growth are happening in Brookings.

From their findings, the area surrounding Medary Elementary tends to be static, given that it’s already densely populated with little room for more development. But south of town, near Dakota Prairie Elementary, housing developments are continuing to be built, making it a high-growth area within the school district’s boundaries. The trick for the committee, then, was to balance factors like these.

Of the five, the board liked Scenario B the best.

In the current boundaries, the border between Medary and Dakota Prairie mainly follows 12th Street South east of Main Avenue South. Under this scenario, however, this boundary is pushed south to follow 15th Street South.

Also, Western Estates and Hillside Trailer Court, now within Medary’s boundaries, would instead be in Dakota Prairie’s boundaries under this plan. 

For each of the options, the board looked at how it’d impact the number of grade sections at each of the schools, comparing it to a target number for each building.

Dakota Prairie has an ideal target of 15 sections, and under this option, the target is met.

Assuming 20 students per section, there would be 13.8 sections at that school. When the number of students per section increases to 22, that results in 12.5 sections there; for 24 students per section, it becomes 11.5 sections.

Hillcrest’s ideal number of sections is set at 12 sections, and it would be able to meet that.

For 20 students per section, Hillcrest would have 10.9 sections; for 22 students per section, there would be 9.9 sections; and for 24 students per section, 9 sections.

Medary would be the only school to exceed its ideal number of sections (12) under this scenario.

For 20 students per section, Medary would have 15.2 sections (3.2 higher than the ideal); for 22 students per section, there would be 13.8 sections; and for 24 students per section, 12.7 sections.

“This is the scenario that the committee decided they liked,” O’Neill said, “but they wanted to do some little revisions.”

The boundary lines shift in the revised version of Scenario B so that more room is left open for future growth at Dakota Prairie, slightly boosting the student population at Hillcrest instead.

The major difference from this revision from its original form is that Western Estates and Hillside Trailer Court would fall within Hillcrest’s boundaries now.

The ideal number of sections remains the same for each of the school buildings.

For Dakota Prairie (15 sections), with 20 students per section, there would be 12.7 sections; 11.5 sections for the 22 students per section; and 10.6 for 24 students per section.

At Hillcrest (12 sections), they reach it with 20 students per section at 11.9 sections; with 22 students per section, it’s 10.8 sections; and with 24 students per section, it’s 9.9.

Medary’s numbers remain unchanged in the revision.

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.