BROOKINGS The Brookings School Board discussed changes to elementary school attendance boundaries and possibly using staggered start and end times to help reduce traffic congestion. Superintendent Summer Schultz presented committee work on those topics to the board during Monday nights meeting.
New construction at Hillcrest and Medary have increased the capacity at those schools while Dakota Prairie is nearing maximum enrollment. Only the three elementary schools in Brookings use boundary maps, determining enrollment based on residential addresses. Beginning in fourth grade, all students attend the same school. The review committee is exploring changing that and transitioning to four pre-K through fifth-grade schools that would each base enrollment off neighborhood boundary maps.
We dont change boundaries to change boundaries, Schultz said. There are again no changes to be made to boundaries for the 2025-2026 school year. The goal will be that the committee will be providing the board of ed options for different boundaries to be finalized by fall of 2025, and allowing parents to know their boundary with the new work somewhere around the end of that first semester next year the end of 2025 which would provide a lot of time for those additional considerations and for people to plan accordingly.
She said theyre using an analytical program that incorporates data on enrollment, demographics, facilities, transportation routes and more.
The good thing is that with this analytical program we are going to be able to do it and take a lot of bias out, Schultz said. (The committee can) put in the priorities and have the program help me align things.
The committee is also working with city officials to ensure long-term growth projections are considered. They will also look at transportation route safety around each school. Schultz said there will be opportunities for community input before the board adopts any new boundary plan.
Meanwhile, a separate committee has been exploring staggering start and end times for each school to help relieve traffic congestion.
We wouldnt make significant changes to any school start times unless it solved one of our high priority issues, Schultz said. We dont want to change just for the sake of change or because theres a complaint or something. We want it to target certain things, and obviously thats congestion and safety around our school zones.
The district will be using responses from the Brookings Area Transportation Plan Public Travel Survey to guide any possible changes to start and end times. That survey is posted at https://hdr.jotform.com/250266207529053 and is open through March 7.
They have added some of our questions and concerns that center around congestion in school areas at certain times, Schultz said. We really just encourage people to participate in that survey that the city has put out, because it also includes work for us on our school start time work that were doing.
Contact Jay Roe at [email protected].
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