New School Attendance Boundaries Being Discussed

While construction crews pour footings and lay bricks for the gym at Mead School District’s new high school on Peone Prarie, district administrators and parents are preparing to make tough decisions about internal structures for the school.

The $37.5 million school, sitting on 55 acres, is expected to open on schedule in the fall of 1997. The enormous, 2-story gym looms over a network of concrete forms that lay like knocked-over dominos on the hard-packed dirt.

To get ready for the opening, a pair of public committees are talking about two important issues - school attendance boundaries and whether Mead’s senior class will be split that first year or kept together.

The 22-member committee of parents and community members met last week to begin drawing boundaries.

Al Swanson, the district administrator coordinating the committee, said he expects future discussions about attendance boundaries to be “emotional.”

Swanson said the debate is not simply about the high school, although parents have strong feelings about keeping their students with favorite teachers or coaches.

High schools traditionally have “feeder” elementary and middle schools, which keep students together.

Drawing up boundaries and picking feeder schools for the new school will be difficult, Swanson said, because both high schools must have equal populations.

If they don’t, new boundaries may have to be drawn for some elementary schools and the district’s two junior high schools.

“You can bet there will be a lot of public input,” said Swanson.

After listening to parents and the community, the panel will make a recommendation to the school board. A recommendation is expected by Christmas, but Swanson said a particularly divisive debate could delay a decision.

Also at Mead High School last week, administrators met with parents to weigh the pros and cons of splitting the class of 1998 between the two high schools or keeping them at one building.

Those students are currently sophomores at Mead High School, and would be seniors when the new building opens in 1997.

Mead Assistant Principal Bruce Olgard said each sophomore would get a ballot to take home on Oct. 12. Ballots will be due back Oct. 20, and results likely to be released Oct. 23.

“The parents are so involved here,” said Olgard. “We need to include them in these decisions.”

If the students choose to stay together, the district would keep them all at the existing Mead High School, leaving some empty classrooms at the new school.

Decisions on school name, colors and mascot will be made by next spring.

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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Boundary meeting The committee setting attendance boundaries for Mead School District’s new high school next meets at 7 p.m. Oct. 19 at Northwood Junior High, 13120 N. Pittsburg.