After months of serious study, the committee assigned to review potential changes to the secondary school attendance boundaries in the Central Kitsap School District (CKSD) has made its selection.
Of the four potential options explored, the committee has recommended the existing secondary boundaries be changed to move the district’s secondary schools closer to their enrollment targets.
A final review by the CKSD Board of Directors is slated for Jan. 14.
“Option A is the best option,” committee spokesman Dirk Gleysteen told the school board at its Dec. 10 meeting. “It is the recommendation of the committee that the class of 2010 should be given spots in their current schools.”
Under Option A, some high school students would be moved from Central Kitsap High School and some would move from CKHS to Klahowya Secondary School. On the junior high level, some students currently attending Ridgetop Junior High School would move to Fairview Junior High School and Central Kitsap Junior High School, while others would transition from CKJH to RJH and Klahowya Secondary School.
Maps of the proposed changes can be found on the district’s Web site at www.cksd.wednet.edu.
The advantages of that option are it brings the district’s secondary schools closest to their enrollment targets and moves most schools closer to the district diversity average, Gleysteen told the board.
Another recommendation from the committee is that students, whose attendance boundaries are moved, should receive “super priority” for transfer to their former schools, he said.
The transfers of out-of-district students does not impact the secondary school enrollment targets, because each school has roughly the same number of out-of-district transfers, he said, noting the district receives about $5,300 per out-of-district transfer student.
“Without those students we would have a net of $271,000 to make up,” he said. “We can’t lightly solve any of this problem by sending out-of-district students back.”
Board president Bruce Richards asked if the out-of-district transfers would still be based on what is best for the district.
“Students from out-of-the-district have, in the existing policy, the lowest priority for transfer,” Gleysteen responded, noting it is not absolutely clear to the extent to which out-of-district students would be displaced or how they would respond.
CKSD Superintendent Greg Lynch told the board he is reasonably confident that even with the proposed attendance boundary changes, the district is going to be able to accommodate everyone’s needs.
“Dirk might have come up with the perfect solution, and if you’re here in another 10 years we’ll be doing it again,” Lynch said.
