Board votes to delay boundary changes for elementary schools in the Skyway area

April 9, 2007—The Renton School Board recently voted to delay creating new boundaries for Bryn Mawr, Campbell Hill and Lakeridge elementary schools.

Postponement of the changes, previously scheduled for implementation next September, will allow the board to request that the district’s Enrollment Review Committee (ERC) re-examine the recommended boundary changes during the 2007-08 school year. Areas for review include analysis of transportation costs and the impact of new housing developments as well as the educational impact of the movement of students among schools.

In 2004 and 2005, the ERC made a number of recommendations to the Board, and most of those have been implemented, including changes to the Lindbergh High School service area elementary schools last fall. The recommendation to adjust boundaries for Bryn Mawr, Campbell Hill and Lakeridge elementary schools to create north/south corridors was initially designed with the goals of reducing transportation costs, reducing “fragmentation” or non-contiguous school boundaries and better utilizing the capacity at each school, goals that also guided the Lindbergh High School area changes.

After further review using new software that better tracks transportation costs and housing starts, it was determined that the corridor design, as initially conceived, does not meet the stated goals. A significant number of students who currently walk to Bryn Mawr would require bus transportation to Lakeridge, so the corridor concept would require the addition of two new bus routes and the hiring of two additional drivers at a cost of about $50,000 per year.

In addition, other changes have occurred since the ERC made its original recommendations. All three schools have increased enrollment with the inclusion of their kindergarten students who moved back to neighborhood schools last fall after the closure of Thomson Early Childhood Center. Also, a major new apartment complex is expected to add more than 100 students to the rolls by next fall, and other new housing developments are in process.

School board members will revisit the issue in the fall of 2008.