Parents object to proposed school boundary changes
Upset about the possibility that their elementary school children may have to attend school outside of the Liberty Lake area, parents turned out in force Tuesday night to a hearing on the proposed attendance boundary changes in the Central Valley School District.
Under boundary changes currently being considered by the district, about 40 to 50 children who live on the west side of Liberty Lake would be moved from Liberty Lake Elementary to Greenacres Elementary.
“They are splitting us up,” said Sharon Carlson, who has a kindergartner attending Liberty Lake Elementary next year. “Our neighborhood is the original community of Liberty Lake and should be in the Liberty lake attendance area.”
The district is currently considering the boundary changes for the possibility that two new schools will be built in the Liberty Lake area by 2009.
The School Board voted two weeks ago to take a $55.2 million bond before the voters in November to pay for it.
If voters approve the bond, a new middle school will be built on a 23-acre site next to Liberty Lake Elementary.
The district purchased a new elementary site at Mission and Long in February, though it has not yet been decided if that is where the school will go. The district is currently negotiating for a 12-acre site about a mile to the east on Mission. That site is being offered by a developer.
The proposed changes are based on the recommendation of a boundary review committee charged by the board in January to establish what the boundaries would look like for those two proposed schools.
On Tuesday, the district held a public hearing for the community to comment on the proposed changes.
Parents and community members had three minutes each to stand up and give their comments. They also have until Monday to write to the district with suggestions.
The most contentious issue with the proposed changes concerns the change to the west of the Liberty Lake, just west of the lake itself.
Residents said that community was there before any of the new developments taxing the school system, and should be allowed to remain at Liberty Lake Elementary.
Parent Melanie Soltero, whose two children would move from Liberty Lake to Greenacres said she was upset because she would have drive past the school to take her kids to Greenacres.
“It just seems illogical to me,” Soltero said.
The boundary review committee will meet again next week to discuss the community input, and make changes to the proposed plan as needed before making a final recommendation to the school board June 13.