CV Boundary Changes Keep Friends Together

Thu., April 27, 2000

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

The Central Valley School Board has approved boundary changes that will keep most elementary school students together with their friends as they move into junior high and high school.

The board voted unanimously this week for revised recommendations from the boundary review committee.

The committee made revisions after two public hearings. Attendance at those hearings was slim, but the most often heard comments were critical of separating students from their friends as they move through the school system.

The approved revisions mean that Adams Elementary students will all go to Evergreen Junior High. Under the committee’s earlier plan, Adams students would have split up and been sent on to three different junior highs.

McDonald Elementary students will go to Bowdish Junior High and then on to University High School. Earlier plans would have put McDonald students in Evergreen Junior High School, and then pulled them away, into University High School, while the rest of the Evergreen students went on to Central Valley High School.

These changes were announced by the boundary review committee at a packed school board meeting on Monday. The changes apparently pleased those parents in attendance, as no one chose to address the board on the topic.

The board members also approved a timeline for the boundary changes. This timeline will allow families in the area that’s changing from Central Valley High School to University High School the chance to choose one school or the other.

Transportation ordinarily is not provided for students who enroll in a school under the state’s choice rule. However, board members asked Central Valley staff to come up with a cost for transporting these students.

If the transportation cost is affordable, board members said they would consider making an exception.

The boundary changes are intended to balance enrollments at the secondary schools and allow for growth in the east end of the district.

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