Balancing boundaries: District goes back to drawing board
May 18—Over the next six months, St. Joseph education leaders will remake a complex boundary system that determines where students attend school.
Open enrollment between the three high schools could be eliminated, correcting Central High School's vast advantage in student population. But that is only one phase of a grander project. Work that began this month will evolve over the summer, possibly producing a draft plan in October and receiving a final Board of Education vote by the end of 2023.
"The best way to understand the current boundary lines is, if you imagine putting a Band-Aid over a crack, and the crack just keeps cracking a little bit, a little bit, and you never actually correct anything, that's where we're at," said LaTonya Williams, president of the St. Joseph Board of Education.
"In the past ... it was a matter of trying to please particular groups of people, one at a time. 'I live here, I want my kid to go there. I live there, I want my kid to go here.' And maybe it was good. Maybe it worked. That was the past. The past is gone. It doesn't work anymore."
As a result, St. Joseph School District leaders have concluded, the city has too many elementary schools, and some of them may be assigned to the wrong service areas, which are defined by contiguous boundary lines. One elementary school, Mark Twain, is being converted to a preschool this summer. A decision is possible on closing another outright.
Any changes would take effect in the 2024-25 year. Only the school board can approve closures and new boundaries.
"Right now, we're in the very beginning stages and we've had a few discussions," Superintendent Gabe Edgar said. "We have had administrative meetings. It is something that the Facilities Committee will take a look at over the next six to eight months. We will likely involve the Academics Committee and a few of the other committees we have as well. I think it will all work seamlessly together toward a single end result."
Most of the elementary schools continue to teach kindergarten through sixth grade, out of step with national norms. There is no clean "feeder" system that keeps groups of students together from elementary, to middle and high school, another national norm.
"My kids all went to North End schools, and I kind of want to keep my daughter at Robidoux (Middle School) in that area," said Tracey Drennen, who lives not far from Lafayette. "So I would hope we would give priority to that."
The district's elementary schools are either sparsely populated or overcrowded. The current four middle schools are not enough if the goal of teaching all sixth graders in middle schools is to be realized.
At the high school level, Central ends up receiving most pupils, either through the convoluted elementary-middle-high pathways that exist now or aided by the open enrollment rule. In a given year, that one institution usually has more students than the high school enrollments of Benton, Lafayette, Bishop LeBlond and St. Joseph Christian schools, combined.
Kenneth Reeder, vice president of the school board, said he is feeling optimistic about tackling these challenges this year.
"Usually, there is always pushback about boundaries, for whatever reasons," he said. "But now, it seems to be really a majority of people think something needs to be done. We need to make it make sense. We need to redistribute the kids we have among the facilities we have."
The changes likely will first affect students arriving for school in August 2024. But even decisions made later this year aren't certain to be implemented. Board members know that while they will vote on boundary changes in December, they then face the judgment of voters in April 2024. Three seats will be on the ballot, held by Reeder, Williams and David Foster, Williams' predecessor as board president.
In a way, the plan is already in motion, since Mark Twain's conversion required its students to be divided between Skaith, Parkway, Coleman, Carden Park and Edison elementary schools. Lines for each of them had to be re-drawn into the former territory of Mark Twain. That change takes effect this coming August, and everyone affected has been informed.
Kayla Garfield, the mother of a soon-to-be Skaith fourth grade girl who has been at Mark Twain up until now, said she approves of how the change has been handled.
"I really liked Mark Twain," she said. "I actually only moved here about four years ago, so it's the only school I've known. So I was a little nervous with my daughter coming to Skaith because I don't really know much of the schools around here. But she's a good kid, and she's been treated well by the teachers. They've really loved everyone."
Drennen, the Robidoux mother, said transparency will be key to the district obtaining support for the plan that eventually develops.
"I think that they need to give the parents notice and open that up for the community so that we can hear and see the changes that are going to happen within our school system, for our kids," she said.
Marcus Clem can be reached at marcus.clem@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NPNowClem
