Recommendations for the proposed attendance boundaries are based on planning parameters that ensure effective operations of the district. They include:
- State and federal guidelines.
- Efficient use of district resources.
- The teacher/student ratio, established by the School Board through the budget process, determines adequate space.
- Lower teacher/student ratios have priority at elementary schools, most notably kindergarten and first grade.
- Educational support and programming based on the student demographics of the attendance boundary.
- Bus rides are reasonable lengths.
- Students living within a mile of their school walk (if there aren’t hazards present on their walk to school).
- Adjoining attendance boundaries with as minimal disruption as possible.
- High school attendance boundaries remain the same.
- Growth from current and future residential development.
- Attendance boundaries that change, will remain in effect for at least five years at elementary schools and ten years at middle schools.
Following the parameters, the current proposals move less than 4,500 students, or approximately 11% of the district’s 38,000 students.
- The majority of proposed changes are at the elementary level.
- Some proposed changes at the middle school level in Blaine and Coon Rapids.