Parents Ask That Children Stay At Chester Elementary

Fewer than 50 parents spoke up at recent Central Valley School District hearings to discuss changes in the elementary school boundaries.

The most concern came from a group of parents whose children would be moved from Chester to Ponderosa Elementary School.

In order to take advantage of five currently empty classrooms at Ponderosa, it is proposed that about 75 students be moved from Chester. That change and other realignments of the elementary boundaries across the district are designed to accommodate the new grade school at Liberty Lake, due to open in September 1988.

The changes are tentative until the school board approves them.

“We’re still open. If people want to make comments, they can give us a call or send written comments,” said Carol Peterson, director of elementary education.

The school board is expected to vote later this month on new boundaries.

“I have a first-grader and a sixth-grader at Chester. I am very involved there; I’m there on a daily basis,” said parent Sami Perry. “I love the teachers there.”

She was among the parents from a triangle bordered by Dishman-Mica, 32nd and Bowdish, whose children may have to leave Chester.

Perry and others asked about ways they could keep their children at Chester, including choicing or a grandfather policy for older children - particularly children who might be moved to Ponderosa solely for their sixth-grade year.

“Then there’s the issue of our roads,” Perry said.

Busy Dishman-Mica Road lies between her home and Ponderosa.

“I can’t imagine both distance-wise and street-wise, that we wouldn’t bus those children across that road,” Peterson said.

The other issue concerning Chester parents is that their school currently has 50 students enrolled from outside its boundaries, under the state’s choice law. There is no provision in the law for those children to be transferred out, during a rezoning.

“That’s the part that’s really unfair,” Perry said.

But Peterson said the school board would have to decide how to reset the number of choice students allowed at Chester.

In other parts of the district, few parents voiced concerns. Mostly, parents wanted clarification of the new boundaries.

At one hearing, only four community members appeared.

“We just wanted to come say we’re happy,” said Jeanne Grimmett, one of the four. Her children will remain at Sunrise Elementary School.

, DataTimes