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School board OKs new attendance boundary lines By Amber Fossen Ashland Daily Tidings Newly carved attendance boundary lines will have some area children attending a different school in the fall of 2003. The Ashland School Board unanimously approved "Proposal 4" which reduces the existing five school boundaries into four. Under the new plan, Briscoe students would attend Helman Elementary School, while the remaining school boundary zones would shift to accommodate the change. According to Superintendent Juli Di Chiro, the new plan would reduce bus traffic. "Under this plan, we would only have busing at Bellview and Helman (elementary schools)" Di Chiro said, adding that students placed in the Lincoln attendance zone would be polled to see if there was enough interest in public transportation to warrant an additional route. To qualify for district transportation, students must live more than one mile from their school. Should a student request a zone transfer to a different school than the one in their attendance zone, they will be responsible for their own transportation, according to school officials. As Briscoe students merge into Helman, a portion of Helman students will move into the Lincoln and Walker attendance zones. To accommodate the influx of kindergarten through fifth graders, some Walker students will then be placed in the Bellview school zone. The Helman school zone would incorporate the former Briscoe zone in addition to areas north of South Pioneer Street. Lincoln would be between South Pioneer Street and Mountain Avenue with a portion encompassing Siskiyou Boulevard before Wightman Street. It would be capped north between Oak Street and Mountain Avenue. Walker, the smallest zone, would touch the Lincoln attendance zone at Mountain Avenue and Siskiyou Boulevard at Wightman Street and end at Park Street. The Bellview attendance zone would begin at Park Street, leading out Hwy. 99. Based on this year's enrollment levels and newly structured attendance zones, the district predicts approximately 340 students will attend Helman, 182 will be at Lincoln, 226 students at Walker and 305 K-5 graders at Bellview for the 2003-2004 school year. Walker parent Pauline Black wanted to know if the district would implement an attendance cap should a particular school receive the bulk of zone transfer requests. "We're not 100 percent sure how many kids will be at each school," Di Chiro said. Di Chiro said that, for now, the goal is to be flexible. However the district would not let enrollment levels soar toward 400 students. The district decided to assign teachers to each school first so that area families will be able to make informed decisions when selecting to stay in their assigned zone or request a transfer. Briscoe teachers will fill out a survey form noting which school they would prefer, to be submitted to the district by this Friday. Teacher placements will be announced the following week with support staff and remaining faculty to receive assignments in April. Letters notifying families of which zone they're in will be mailed out by the end of the week. Families will have the opportunity to explore their assigned school at open houses scheduled from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday, Jan. 27 at all the elementaries. Students placed in each new zone will have priority for attending the school in their zone. Following those students, any student who attended the school the previous year - even if they've been placed in another zone - will have second priority. All new zone transfer requests will be entertained last. Zone transfer requests will be due at each child's current school office no later than Jan. 31. All families will be notified of their final placement at the end of February. In other business the board: approved the memorandum of understanding between the ASD and the Southern Oregon Bargaining Council and the Oregon School Employees Association Chapter 42 regarding a reduction of up to 10 work days; accepted a $1,000 donation from Lithia Honda Volkswagen; appointed Andy Dugan to serve on the Budget Committee; approved the resolution regarding Public Employees Retirement System which will allow the Oregon School Board Association to appeal on its behalf; and, held the first reading of the board policy revisions. The next regular session is at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 10 in the Ashland Council Chambers. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -