Meeting Summaries
The committee continued its discussion on the draft 2 (March 1) proposal. Staff reviewed the boundaries, which generally split the current North Plains attendance area at Highway 26, Glencoe Road and Pumpkin Ridge Road: students to the north of 26, west of Glencoe Rd and west of Pumpkin Ridge will continue attending North Plains Elementary; students to the south of 26, east of Glencoe Rd and east of Pumpkin Ridge will attend Atfalati Ridge this fall.
A map of North Plains students currently enrolled in the district, whether at the school or online, was displayed to show their locations within the attendance boundaries. The enrollment is fairly balanced between the two schools. Also, the enrollment difference between the first draft of the proposal and the latest was negligible.
Questions were raised about the sustainability of the new boundaries for the long-term given the continuing development of the area. Demographic data supports the capability of both schools to accommodate future enrollments for at least the next seven years. Beyond that time period, the data is too tenuous to be reliable. In the past, the projections have been very close to the actual enrollments.
Impacts of development in other parts of the district should not affect these boundaries as this growth is expected to be absorbed by other schools, specifically, Brookwood, Rosedale and ES29 in the south Hillsboro area (which, in turn, will undergo its own boundary process prior to ES29's opening in fall 2023). The biggest uncertainties districtwide, however, lie in the number of students who will return from online learning as COVID restrictions ease as well as potential kindergarten enrollments (the upcoming kinder fair in spring will give us a better idea of incoming kinder numbers).
Once the boundaries are set, the Transportation Department will begin the process of setting up the residential addresses assigned to their respective schools and publishing this data in the "Find My Home School" online app. This is currently expected to take place in May (after the return-to-school work is done). Bus routing also will be worked on, which may determine whether or not the bell schedules for each school will be the same. Notifications will be sent to families by the summer. New student enrollments should be done online or at North Plains Elementary (until Atfalati Ridge opens).
Committee members all agreed that the latest proposal is a solid one that satisfactorily takes into account transportation, growth and other factors. All voted to move it forward as the committee's recommendation to the School Board at the Board's April 13 work session.
Attendees were asked for comments about the previous and current proposals. There were concerns about the previous map's boundary intersections across Pumpkin Ridge Road, but these appear to be resolved with the current proposal.
Community survey results so far were presented, including comments and questions, and staff responses to concerns raised. Facebook chatter and word-of-mouth in the community does not appear to have raised any major objections to the boundary process and proposals. There was a suggestion to split grades between the two schools, with grades K-3 at one school and grades 4-6 at the other, but this can create different school culture in addition to concerns about changing schools.
In addition to current communication channels (i.e., websites, district and school newsletters), the City of North Plains' app has been offered as another option to publicize the boundary process.
At the first meeting of the boundary process committee, HSD Capital Projects Officer Adam Stewart welcomed attendess and asked everyone to introduce themselves. He went over the guiding principles for the process and how they impact drawing of attendance area boundaries. Enrollment data also have an impact; students enrolled in physical HSD schools have decreased due to COVID, resulting in more students opting for full online learning at Hillsboro Online Academy as well as enrollment in non-HSD schools. This data has been evaluated by the district's demographer, Davis Demographics, and provide the projections that underlie this boundary process.
Tom Luba, Director of Student Information and Evaluation, presented the first draft of the proposed boundary map. The current North Plains Elementary attendance area is being split. Generally, in the version presented (dated Feb. 24), students north of Highway 26 and to the west/northwest of Glencoe Road will remain at North Plains. The rest of the area, including south of Highway 26 and east of Glencoe Road, will have students attending Atfalati Ridge Elementary. A small slice of the Patterson Elementary attendance area (currently, no HSD students here) is also included to smooth out the boundary. Mr. Luba reiterated that there will need to be additional smoothing around roads, i.e., Old Pumpkin Ridge, to contain them in one attendance area and avoid duplication in bus transportation routes that go to different schools. Community feedback also will be taken into account, subject to the guiding principles.
Questions and comments were taken from attendees. Concern was raised about future development impacting enrollments and school capacity. Mr. Luba indicated that potential development is accounted for and believes that both schools have capacity to serve the North Plains community for at least the next seven years or so. A suggestion to expand outreach to include information about the process in the North Plains newsletter was implemented that evening (adding to promotions in the district's weekly "Hot News" newsletter as well as photo rotator "ads," announcement and calendar postings on the North Plains school website).
The community is encouraged to provide feedback about the boundary proposal via this survey form and/or attending future meetings.