Boundary Changes Have A Personal Cost

Sat., April 15, 2000

By Marny Lombard marnyl@spokesman.com (509) 927-2166

The most powerful speech at Thursday’s hearing on new boundaries for Central Valley schools zeroed in on the emotional hardship of losing one’s friends.

Ninth-grader Audra Krislock spoke from experience.

“I am here to give you a kid’s perspective of junior high,” she said. “Everybody says that kids adapt. They are right. We do.

“But it was one of the hardest things that I have ever done and it came with so many tears.”

After attending Adams Elementary School, Krislock went to Evergreen Junior High School, while most of her classmates went to Greenacres Junior High School.

“For over a year and a half, I felt like an outsider and alone,” she said, her voice trembling.

“Since then, I have made some close friends. I have invested a lot of time and energy into nurturing these friendships and being involved in school,” she said. “If I were to be separated again from my friends, I don’t think I could handle it.”

This teenager was one of six speakers at the hearing. The boundary changes under discussion will eventually even up enrollments at Central Valley’s two high schools, as well as among the district’s five junior high schools.

The proposed boundary changes for the high schools received no comment at either of two hearings. Discussion instead focused on certain elementary and junior high schools.

If the Central Valley School Board adopts the recommendations of the boundary review committee, Adams Elementary graduates will be spread among not two, but three junior high schools.

Another speaker at the hearing tackled the same issue, but in a different time frame. Rick Sloan is a teacher at Central Valley High School. He spoke of the confidence he sees among students from Evergreen and Greenacres junior highs who arrive at CV High with all their friends.

“There’s an aura of confidence that comes with them,” Sloan said, “whereas the North Pines (Junior High) kids are unattached.” North Pines currently sends some students to CV High and others to University High School.

The boundary committee will review all comments next week and make possible adjustments to the boundary proposal. The committee will make a final recommendation to the Central Valley School Board at its April 24 meeting.

If approved by the school board, these boundary changes will go into effect in two years, when the two new high schools open their doors.

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