Brookside Transition to Start Next Year; New School Boundaries Voted on March 22

At last night's Board meeting, the board considered two weighty transition topics: approving a preliminary plan for the move to two K-5 campuses at Brookside and discussing a first draft proposal for new district boundaries for all the elementary schools.

Most importantly, the board members all pointed out, is that parents understand these changes are not necessarily going to affect their kids who are currently enrolled. Students who are already at one elementary campus will likely be allowed to finish there if that's what the families want, regardless of where the new boundaries place them. Additionally, the Brookside transition attempts to allow as much "grandfathering-in" for siblings and students who are already at either campus.

"This is for next year's Kindergarten and beyond," said Board Member Sharon Sagar of the new boundary proposals.

Schreder and Associations, who were contracted with to conduct a boundary study and who previously worked on the district's Master Plan, presented proposed boundaries -- which they emphasized were simply a starting point and would be revised.

The district faces a couple of key challenges in determining new school boundaries. With the increasing enrollment, the district has said it is aiming for campuses of 360-400 students after the is completed to expand capacity at each school.

The largest number of students -- and where the largest increase in student enrollment is expected -- is along the San Anselmo-Fairfax border near Lower Brookside. Upper Brookside, by contrast, has very few students who live near it and, with just one main road into Sleepy Hollow, many parents have to drive to the upper campus. Additionally, ridges and geography dictate how families are able to walk and bike to school.

Attached at right is a map that shows dots where current students live in the district.

Jamie Iseman, of Schreder and Associates, explained that to construct possible boundaries the district was divided into planning zones within each school's current boundaries -- that planning map is also attached at right. And the number of students in each of those zones was noted on an additional map attached at right.

Iseman said they started with a "best fit" to send every student to their closest school -- attempting to leave Wade Thomas and Manor relatively unchanged in their boundaries and dividing Upper and Lower Brookside down the middle. But, that left only 175 kids at Upper and 508 at Lower.

In the first scenario, some of the planning zones, or neighborhoods, at Lower (Brookside 5, 6, and 8) were then reassigned to Upper, even the neighborhood that is directly across from Lower campus. Additionally, Brookside 11 was assigned to Wade Thomas on the map and those who attend Brookside but live south of Center Boulevard were reassigned to Wade Thomas.

This can be seen in the map at right labeled Scenario 1. Additionally, at right, are the student projections under that scenario.

Having to send students who live right across from Lower Brookside to Upper Brookside was a problem for most of the board members, who wanted to encourage walking and biking to school.

Iseman said that regardless of what scenario plays out, the geography of the district will mean that some students may live closer to one campus but attend another. "That's just an unavoidable consequence," she said.

The second scenario she presented attempts to address part of that problem. Planning Zone Brookside 5 is directly across from Lower Brookside and there was much concern expressed about making those students instead drive to Upper. So, in the second scenario, Brookside 5 was assigned to Lower campus. Brookside 10 was assigned to Wade Thomas. And, Manor 4 was assigned to Upper Brookside. The argument being that if some students are already having to drive to school, then they might as well drive to Upper Brookside -- which is the farthest from where students live.

The map of the second scenario is attached at right, as well as enrollment projections under that scenario.

Board members and parents had a number of suggestions about how to better deal with the Upper Brookside low-student-density problem. Some suggested having the populated area of San Francisco Boulevard utilize the school-contracted Golden Gate Transit bus that runs to the Upper Brookside campus or that students on Willow Avenue in Fairfax were already driving to school and could easily drive to Upper Brookside. Others suggested reassigning some Manor students to Wade Thomas because it is easier to walk and bike south of Center Boulevard than to have to cross Center Boulevard and Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. There were also suggestions for dividing what is Brookside 6 on the planning map into two sections with some going to Manor.

New scenarios that take some of these suggestions into account will be presented to the board this upcoming Tuesday, Feb. 15.

After new scenarios are considered, community input will be gathered before the board votes on final boundaries on March 22.

The board also approved a preliminary transition plan for Brookside's move to two K-5 campuses from a K-2 and a grade 3-5 campus. The plan will start the gradual transition this upcoming school year, with recognition for families' preferences and siblings who are at one or the other school.

Starting in August, Upper Brookside will host grades 1-5 and Lower Brookside will host grades K-3. This will allow current third and fourth graders at Upper to finish their school time at Upper Brookside without having to change grades again.

Current second graders are already split between Upper and Lower because of overcrowding on the campuses. However, they are split not based on any boundary lines. Lower Brookside Principal Marci Trahan said she and Upper Brookside Principal Tracy Smith intend to allow those current second grade families to continue at the school they are at if they want to and allow special circumstances, so as not to force students through too many transitions.

Current Kindergarteners and first graders are all at Lower Brookside right now, but some will move to Upper Brookside next year. The district intends to take into consideration siblings already at one campus or the other.

Upper Brookside can't have Kindergarten classes next year because specific Kindergarten facilities have to first be built at that campus, which will be part of the new classroom construction and expansion. So, all new Kindergarteners will be at Lower Brookside next year and then half will move to Upper campus. However, Trahan and Smith said they could group the classes so that three Kindergarten classes will be the ones moving to Upper the following year. That way, families get to know each other.

In August, if enrollment at the two campuses continues to be high, contingency plans are in place so that neither campus will have to rely more than necessary on portables while construction is taking place. At Upper Brookside, the Resource Room will be made into a full-classroom and the Resource program will share space with the library. At Lower Brookside, the music room could be converted into a classroom and the music program will temporarily share the multi-purpose room that the YMCA program uses before and after school.

All of this is temporary while construction to expand and renovate the facilities goes on for the next few years. By school year 2013-14, both Brookside Upper and Lower will be full K-5 campuses.

Attached at right is the class progression chart for Upper and Lower over the next three years.