The lines are shifting.
With two new high schools and an elementary school on the horizon, Lincoln Public Schools officials are doing a districtwide review of elementary, middle and high school attendance boundaries for the first time in 15 years.
Their hope: to adjust boundaries to accommodate future growth, reduce overcrowding and fill buildings that have room, work recommended by a community task force reviewing high school needs to ensure LPS makes the most of existing school capacity.
Making changes to attendance areas has often been a controversial undertaking because changes — primarily those for elementary and middle schools — directly affect families, even though district policy allows currently enrolled students affected by the boundary changes to finish out at the same school.
LPS Operations Director Scott Wieskamp said it's necessary, if difficult, work.
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“We could do nothing but define new attendance areas and we could solve all our problems with portables, but we know our community doesn’t like that,†he said. “We fear controversy but we need to make good decisions for the long haul.â€
A three-member school board planning committee got a first look at possible changes, though members had questions, and all suggestions are subject to change or could be discarded before going to the full board for review.
Board member Annie Mumgaard, one of the committee members, urged district officials to approach attendance area changes with equity in mind, trying when possible to increase the socio-economic and ethnic diversity at schools.
Once the planning committee agrees to recommendations, they will go to the full board for discussion, then to community meetings for input. LPS officials hope to have final recommendations go to the board for approval in August.
District officials’ initial boundary maps attempt to ease overcrowding at the 12 elementary and three middle schools that are at more than 95% capacity, using the six elementary and two middle schools at less than 75% capacity when possible.
Based on those parameters, the elementary schools most affected would be Beattie, Meadow Lane, Kahoa, Pershing, Riley, Huntington, Hill, Adams, Sheridan, Kooser, Pyrtle and Humann.
For middle schools, LPS suggested the biggest changes to Goodrich and Schoo. Some changes in the south part of town would move mostly still-to-be developed areas from Scott to Park or Irving.
Creating boundaries for new high schools being built in northwest and southeast Lincoln will likely have the least effect on families because of LPS’ open-enrollment policy, which allows students to attend any high school.Â
Typically, about 1 in 3 high school students choose a high school outside their attendance area.
Elementary and middle school students also can request transfers to schools outside their attendance area and they’re typically granted, unless the school — or the grade for the requested transfer — is full.Â
Now, all high school boundaries touch the outside limits of the city — with each high school's boundary like an oddly shaped piece of pie — which allows for growth in each high school area. It’s possible that the pie will now look more like a doughnut.
That means one or two high school attendance areas would be landlocked and unable to grow geographically, though in reality there’s little chance of further growth in some of the outlying areas of the existing boundaries, Wieskamp said.
The most likely scenario is that Lincoln High and possibly Southeast will become the middle part of the doughnut. While Lincoln High’s diversity and the International Baccalaureate program there will likely continue to draw students, Wieskamp said it’s less clear what the effect of a landlocked boundary would be for Southeast.
The most difficult boundary decision will be for the new high school in southeast Lincoln, since that’s where the most-robust growth is likely to occur.
District officials are looking ahead about seven years — the typical time period between bond issues and the possibility of building more schools or adding onto existing schools.
At elementary schools, suggestions to ease overcrowding at certain schools created a domino effect of sorts with other schools, with the biggest impact the creation of an attendance area for the new northeast elementary being built near 102nd and Holdrege streets. Preliminary suggestions include:
Elementary schools
(Proposed shifts outlined in yellow)
Kahoa, Meadow Lane and Pershing students to new northeast elementary school: Making 84th Street the west boundary for the new school would mean 176 students at Meadow Lane, 231 students at Kahoa and 82 students at Pershing who live east of 84th Street would be in the new attendance area and no longer have to cross the busy arterial to get to school.
Riley students to Meadow Lane: The new elementary school would create room at the overcrowded Kahoa, which now has two portables. But because Meadow Lane is among schools at less than 75% capacity, LPS officials suggest shifting the boundary line at 56th and Holdrege streets to send 104 students who now attend Riley to Meadow Lane.
Huntington to Riley: Thirty-five students in a small portion of the overcrowded Huntington attendance area would move to Riley.
Adams to Cavett and Roper: LPS officials suggest moving two parts of the Adams attendance area where significant new development is expected, a southern portion (19 students) to Cavett and another portion west of U.S. 77 to Roper (31 students). Â
Humann to Cavett:Â Move a portion of Humann, where more development is expected, to Cavett (19 students).
Hill to Cavett:Â An alternative to moving portions of Adams and Humann into Cavett would be to reduce overcrowding at Hill by shifting a portion of that attendance area to Cavett (55 students).
Sheridan to Beattie and Holmes: To reduce overcrowding at Sheridan, LPS officials suggest shifting boundaries so that 41 Sheridan students would be in the Beattie district and another seven in the Holmes attendance area.
Beattie to Roper:Â To make room for the Sheridan students at Beattie, a portion of the Beattie attendance area, a large swath of land between West Van Dorn Street and West Old Cheney Road, would become part of the Roper attendance areas, affecting 58 students.
Kooser to Campbell: In the northwest part of town, LPS officials suggest reducing overcrowding at Kooser by shifting a chunk of that attendance area so that 77 Kooser students would attend Campbell.
Pyrtle to Morley and Maxey: In east Lincoln, where development of the Stevens Creek area is expected to explode in the coming years, LPS would create room at already overcrowded Pyrtle by shifting boundaries so 45 students would be in the Morley attendance area and 26 in Maxey’s.
Middle schools
(Proposed shifts outlined in yellow)
At the middle school level, the sticky problem of northwest Lincoln — complicated by the isolated Air Park, Interstate 180 and U.S. 34 — makes reducing overcrowding at Schoo and Goodrich complicated. A potential solution:
Goodrich and Schoo to Dawes: Shift an eastern portion of Goodrich west of North 27th Street (66 students) and a portion of Schoo between North 14th and 27th streets to Dawes. The 146 students from the Schoo area could be bused to Dawes because they live more than 4 miles away.
School board committee members also discussed the possibility of temporarily using a portion of the new high school being built on the southern end of Air Park for middle school students. When North Star opened, LPS made a similar move, housing Goodrich students there for a few years.
Scott to Irving or Park:Â LPS will add classrooms to Scott, the most-crowded middle school, but officials also suggest shifting land that is still largely undeveloped from Scott to either the Park or Irving attendance areas.
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