School District Approves New Boundaries

The approved Tuesday night new elementary school boundaries for the upcoming 2011-12 school year.

The approved boundaries, Scenario X, can be seen at right. The approved boundaries have the majority of neighborhoods continuing to attend the school to which they were previously assigned, but changes have been made particularly around the Fairfax-San Anselmo border – with some students in downtown Fairfax attending Lower Brookside and some students in the Good Earth area attending Upper Brookside. Additionally, the San Francisco Boulevard neighborhood will attend Upper.

The new boundaries, which are , attempt to reallocate students to four K-5 campuses as . The major issue was that very few students live near Upper Brookside, which can only be accessed by driving past Lower. This meant that some students would have to go past Lower to attend Upper – a fact that many parents were unhappy about.

The final choice, which Trustees Heidi Weller, Annelise Bauer and Board President Chris Carlucci voted for, was one of .

According to the survey results, 447 community members responded, but only 346 voted between the two options presented. Of those votes, Scenario X (the final choice) took 52.6 percent of the votes and took 47.4 percent of the votes. The areas that were on the edges of the possible boundaries were among those that had the highest number of respondents.

But, a number of respondents noted in their comments that they couldn’t see a difference between the two options and didn’t know how either option would affect Manor with the MAP program.

Both Trustee Sharon Sagar and Conn Hickey abstained from voting, implying that they didn’t feel they could support either scenario. Sagar has also spoken passionately throughout the boundary discussion about the need to instead open Deer Park as a smaller school to serve that neighborhood, which would allow residents to all attend schools near their homes.

According to the projections, the approved scenario will have 352 students at Lower, 324 at Upper, 364 at Manor and 400 at Wade Thomas – not including MAP students.

Going forward, the district will consider ways to alleviate traffic concerns for those families that will now have to travel to Upper Brookside. Discussions have begun about possibly contracting a bus that would travel up Butterfield Drive to Upper campus.

The boundaries will go into effect for incoming Kindergarteners in the upcoming year. The transition to two campuses at Brookside will also begin in the upcoming year, and will be completed over a number of years.

However, the board remains adamant that all students that are currently enrolled at an elementary campus will be able to continue there regardless of where they fall in the new boundaries. Sibling of existing students will also be able to continue at the same campus. The transition to the new boundaries will, then, be a gradual shift as new students start in the district.