Scenarios presented for new school attendance boundaries

With the proposed closure of Whittier and Lincoln elementary schools, school attendance boundaries will be redrawn and students throughout the school district will be reassigned to other school buildings.

At Thursday's elementary listening session, Kala Henkensiefken, the district's transportation coordinator, provided parents with a presentation on where the current boundaries exist and three proposed scenarios for new attendance boundaries next fall to get their comments and suggestions.

In all three scenarios anywhere from 44 to 47 percent of elementary students will be left attending their current school next fall. Brainerd Assistant Superintendent Steve Razidlo said that Baxter parents cannot assume their children will attend Baxter School because they live in Baxter. He said there isn't enough room at Baxter School for all the students who reside at a Baxter address.

Students living outside the district who are currently open enrolled or will be grandfathered into the district next year because their siblings attend Brainerd schools will attend the school closest to their attendance boundary. Razidlo said the law states that open-enrolled students must be transported from the boundary of the school district so it made sense to school administrators to recommend that those open-enrolled students be transported to the nearest school.

A 23-parent transportation advisory committee met in a two- hour session and will meet again to offer their suggestions for attendance boundaries, said Razidlo. In addition, the suggestions offered at Thursday's listening session may mean changes to any or all of the three scenarios presented Thursday, he said.

The first attendance boundary scenario retained the current number of classrooms: four sections in all grade levels at both Baxter and Riverside; three sections at Garfield and Lowell and two sections at Harrison and Nisswa. In this scenario, current Lincoln students would attend Riverside and current Whittier students would attend Lowell.

In this first scenario, the following students - 1,117 of 2,522 students, or 44 percent - would remain in their current school building:

74 percent of Baxter students.

47 percent of Garfield students.

45 percent of Harrison students.

46 percent of Lowell students.

73 percent of Nisswa students.

31 percent of Riverside students.

The second scenario added a section for all grade levels at Garfield and eliminated a section at all grade levels at Lowell. In this scenario, Whittier students would be split with half of them attending Riverside and half attending Lowell.

In this second scenario, the following students - 1,125 of 2,522 students, or 45 percent - would remain in their current school building:

75 percent of Baxter students.

51 percent of Garfield students.

48 percent of Harrison students.

43 percent of Lowell students.

70 percent of Nisswa students.

31 percent of Riverside students.

The third scenario added a section at all grade levels at Riverside and eliminated a section at all grade levels at Lowell. In this scenario, Whittier students would again be split with half of them attending Riverside and half of them attending Lowell. Riverside boundaries would extend to Merrifield.

In this third scenario, the following students - 1,173 of 2,522 students, or 47 percent - would remain in their current school building:

74 percent of Baxter students.

45 percent of Garfield students.

48 percent of Harrison students.

43 percent of Lowell students.

68 percent of Nisswa students.

46 percent of Riverside students.

The school board has approved a one-mile limit on busing for students next fall as part of budget reductions. Henkensiefken said that one-mile walking limit is determined by the district's transportation software program and the shortest route from a student's home to the school by vehicle is used to make that calculation.

The school board curriculum committee will vote to recommend the new attendance boundaries at its 11:30 a.m. Jan. 24 meeting.

JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.