MSD Enrollment and Demographics Committee recommends boundary adjustments to begin at the start of the 2020-2021 school year
Marysville School District had a full choice system for high schools for the past 10+ years. This system of choice was a product of the small learning community school concept that is no longer used in the district.
After multiple studies of the high schools in the district, the Board of Directors made the decision in August 2018 to move to two comprehensive high schools, Marysville Getchell and Marysville Pilchuck High Schools which included the move to feeder pattern attendance boundaries for those two schools. Previously, these schools were “without boundaries” with buses “shuttling” students to their schools of choice under the small learning community concept.
Legacy and Tulalip Heritage High Schools will remain choice schools, and will not be considered for assigned boundaries. 10th Street Middle School will also remain a choice middle school program without assigned feeder pattern boundaries.
The Board of Directors created a committee of parents, community members, staff and students in March of 2019 to study enrollment, facilities, school capacity, transportation, and demographic factors of the school district with the charge develop feeder patterns for the two comprehensive high schools with definite feeder boundaries kindergarten through twelfth grade.
The committee was asked to make a recommendation to the Board of Directors for all district boundaries, elementary, middle, and high school. The Board set parameters and required that the elementary schools remain mainly neighborhood schools. In addition, they asked:
The middle and high schools to reflect the diversity in cultures, economic circumstances, race, gender and other demographic factors in our broad, diverse community to be considered.
Students should move from kindergarten through 12th grade in a consistent manner based on elementary feeder schools to middle and then high school.
To consider the range of learning needs including students receiving additional services such as Special Education, Highly Capable, English Language, and others.
To look closely at bussing and transportation efficiency to potentially save money through increased efficiency while also minimizing the length of bus rides for students.
Limit, if possible, the use of temporary or portable classroom spaces in schools.
The parameters the board gave the committee guided the work from the very beginning.
There were several other factors that affected the work of the committee. The district serves a large area in terms of square miles, however, the highest population density of the district is centralized along State Avenue and 67th. There can also be large differences along economic, cultural, and racial lines between schools. Coupled with the population density, that meant schools in the central corridor had to be considered to achieve the balance required by the school board in the secondary schools. Finally, the district has an even number of elementary schools feeding into an odd number of middle schools back to an even number of high schools. The close proximity of all three middle schools was a large challenge for the committee throughout the work.
The committee met a total of 13 times from spring through fall before reaching a unanimous decision on three recommendations: elementary, middle, and high schools. The committee recommendations were presented to the Board of Directors in a detailed report at the regularly scheduled meeting on December 9. Now, the school district wants to gather input on the recommendation for the Board to consider in setting the boundaries for elementary, middle, and high schools. The committee will continue to meet throughout this process too.
The district will hold in-person forums to gather input and will seek to broaden the input by reaching out to students, families, and the community electronically using the Let’s Talk online communication tool. The Board of Directors will consider the community input along with other factors before making a final decision on the boundary recommendations.
Learn more and provide direct online feedback:
http://bit.ly/MSD25-Boundary-Input
Visit website for updates and additional information:
http://www.msd25.org/o/District/page/boundary-change-process
Attend a Community Forum:
January 14 - Legacy High School Commons, 7:00 - 8:30 PM
January 16 - Service Center Board Room (Meeting in Spanish) - 6:30 - 8:00 PM
January 22 - MGHS Commons - 6:00 - 7:30 PM
January 23 - MPHS Commons - 6:00 - 7:30 PM
January 29 - Tulalip Youth Council Room - 5:00 - 6:30 PM
January 30 - Service Center Board Room - 6:00 - 7:30 PM
More resources and information:
The full committee report can be found online here:
http://bit.ly/MSD-Boundary2019
All committee work, agendas, minutes, and materials can be found here: http://www.msd25.org/enrollment-and-demographics-committee--3