Community invited to school boundary information meetings

The Tahoma Boundary Review Committee voted 13-2, April 27, to present a "hybrid" plan to the community at two public information nights on May 9 and 11.

The plan combines elements from the three parent-created scenarios, which they came up with in small teams and presented at the previous committee meeting. District transportation staff members evaluated the three plans, identified which elements were feasible, common, and not workable. The common and most efficient portions of each of the three plans were put together into the hybrid plan that the committee wants to present to the community.

"It definitely keeps the neighborhoods and groups together," committee member Mitch Morey said. "There's good congruency and it does maintain the walking paths."

Of the nine plans that the committee has considered so far, the hybrid also has the most even distribution of students at the six elementary sites without exceeding capacity at any location.

The plan is not final; the committee will meet again after two public information meetings to consider new information before finalizing what will be presented to the school board.

A few of the committee members' lingering concerns include how many minutes the longest bus rides would be for students who would travel from the southwest side of the district to Cedar River Elementary; length of bus rides in general; and start times. One committee member said it is important for the community to understand that building an additional elementary school in the south part of the district is not feasible, which means the committee had to work with existing schools. Jim House, one of two committee members to vote against bringing the hybrid plan to the public, said he wanted time to look over the plan and study the numbers.
The committee said they would like to emphasize several things for parents and the community to keep in mind when evaluating the hybrid plan:

•The district's concentrated growth is to the south, while a majority of the six elementary sites (in the fall of 2017) will be to the north. They also needed to consider the safe walking areas near Lake Wilderness, Glacier Park and Rock Creek elementaries. Those two facts mean that there is no way to avoid busing some neighborhoods from the south past other elementary sites.

•The realignment doesn't only affect students; large numbers of teachers and staff will be moved in the fall of 2017 as well.

•The hybrid plan is the melding of three parent-created plans, as opposed to the district-created scenarios the committee was presented with at the beginning of the process. "This was a completely collaborative effort," committee member Stephanie Ybarra said. "This was the whole committee being present, looking for efficiencies and trying to keep it as even as possible."

The hybrid plan also calls for "feeder schools" for the two middle schools, with a fairly even student population distribution of about 1,000 students per middle school. The current high school, which will become Maple View Middle School, would get its students from Lake Wilderness Elementary, Shadow Lake Elementary and Cedar River Elementary. The current junior high, which will become Summit Trail Middle School, would be fed from Rock Creek Elementary, Glacier Park Elementary and Tahoma Elementary.
The tentative timeline for the remainder of the boundary process calls for:

•Two public information meetings, both at 6:30 p.m., with May 9 at Tahoma High School and May 11 at Lake Wilderness Elementary. Public comments will be accepted at both meetings and via email.

•May 18, the next Boundary Review Committee meeting, to discuss and process the input gathered at the public meetings.

•May 24, possibly present a recommendation to the school board.

•June 14, possible school board decision.