West Ottawa looking to 'seize the opportunity' with elementary redistricting

Mitchell Boatman, The Holland Sentinel
·3 min read

HOLLAND TWP. — With construction ongoing at the new Riley Farms Elementary School, school leaders at West Ottawa continue to seek opinions and ideas on how to reorganize the district’s elementary schools.

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Superintendent Tim Bearden provided the WOPS Board of Education an update on the redistricting process during a work session Monday, Jan. 23.

An overhead rendering of what Riley Farms Elementary could look like once constructed.
An overhead rendering of what Riley Farms Elementary could look like once constructed.

The process is far from over and “continuously” evolving, Bearden said, with any and all ideas being discussed. Meetings with parents, teachers and stakeholders will continue in the coming months.

“We’re trying to gather as much information as possible and get feedback from people,” he said. “Where we started and where we are right now with ideas is very different. It’s evolving continuously.”

One potential option is turning one of the centrally located elementaries into a dedicated early childhood center as a way to address the limited quantity of childcare slots in the area.

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A relatively new idea, Bearden said, is a partnership with the Ottawa Area ISD at North Holland Elementary. The OAISD is looking at ways to expand the Careerline Tech Center, which has waiting lists for many programs, and utilizing alternate locations is one option.

Bearden said he's had a preliminary discussion with the OAISD about running an Early Childhood Lab at North Holland, staffed partly by students in a teacher prep program at CTC.

There have also been talks of turning North Holland into a dedicated Montessori school, which would be open to families throughout the district interested in that style of education. The district currently offers a Montessori program at Waukazoo Elementary.

Bearden said the reason North Holland is being considered for different program offerings is that much of the school’s student population will be located near Riley Farms when it opens, along with several in the northern part of the district who live close to Sheldon Woods.

“It leaves North Holland in a weird spot in terms of how we would use it geographically,” Bearden said.

Discussions have also included the idea of shifting the district’s middle schools. Currently, Harbor Lights and Macatawa Bay serve grades 6-8. West Ottawa is considering making one building a fifth- and sixth-grade building and having the other serve seventh and eighth grade. In that model, the elementary schools would be K-4 buildings.

Parents have been supportive of the idea, Bearden said, but staff have been more hesitant. A potential issue in switching the current model is making sure teachers are certified in the necessary areas.

A rendering showing plans for outdoor learning spaces at Riley Farms Elementary.
A rendering showing plans for outdoor learning spaces at Riley Farms Elementary.

West Ottawa is also “committed” to a two-way Spanish immersion program somewhere in the district, but the location is to be determined. There is “a fair amount of interest” in locating it near the center of the district, Bearden said.

Board members told Bearden they're excited about the possibilities and happy with the approach to redistricting.

“I’m really pleased that you’ve taken the idea of ‘there are no presuppositions here other than we are building a school’ and you’ve run with that,” Tyson Smith said. “We’re still having these conversations."

“It’s our time to seize this opportunity and I think we’re doing that in the right way.”

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Regardless of which plan, or plans, the district goes with, elementary boundaries will have to be redrawn. Bearden said the district is aiming to announce plans for redistricting nine months prior to Riley Farms opening. If the school is set to open for the 2024-25 school year, then plans would come around Jan. 1, 2024.

Construction is underway for Riley Farms. The building will be located on 120th Avenue between James and Riley streets.

— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelMitch.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: West Ottawa looking to 'seize the opportunity' with elementary redistricting