Some Redmond-area parents in the Lake Washington School District (LWSD) are concerned about what the future may hold for their children as there will be new boundaries to help accommodate the district’s growing population.

Enrollment has increased by close to 2,000 students over the last three years to 26,708, according to an LWSD press release, so a process to change neighborhood school boundaries was held beginning in September 2014. That process concluded Monday night as the district’s board of directors voted unanimously to adopt Superintendent Dr. Traci Pierce’s recommendation for new boundary lines, which will go into effect in September.

“The changes enable the district to most efficiently use current school buildings to house the growing enrollment,” the release states.

“We have this issue because we have more and more students coming to our schools,” noted Jackie Pendergrass, president of the LWSD board, in the release. “They deserve to have a place to be educated.”

The new boundaries were formed by an LWSD boundary committee, which completed a study and analysis process that included multiple opportunities for community input, according to the press release. The committee presented their recommendation to Pierce, who then presented her final recommendation to the board Monday evening.

“We appreciate the attention and engagement of our parents throughout the process,” said Pierce in the release. “Changing attendance boundaries is a difficult process from everyone’s perspective. However, we have a responsibility to ensure that we have classrooms for students. We are committed to helping to transition families and students who will be attending new schools in the 2015-16 school year.”

MIDDLE-SCHOOL STRESSES

Although there was no opposition among the board to Pierce’s recommendation, the same could not be said about the community.

A group of parents from east Redmond and unincorporated King County near Redmond said they feel the new boundaries continue to negatively impact their part of the district as schools remain overcrowded.

Reetu Gupta, who lives on Redmond Ridge and has one child at Evergreen Middle School (EMS) in unincorporated King County near Redmond and one at Samantha Smith Elementary School in Sammamish, said her daughter at EMS already struggles to get into the electives she wants, participate in after-school activities and even use the restroom because the school is so overcrowded. Adding more students will just compound the issue.

Before attending EMS, Gupta’s daughter attended Rosa Parks Elementary School, the Redmond Ridge school that has been overcrowded for several years.

Although all of the boundary changes in the Redmond learning community will be made at the elementary school level, Kathryn Reith, director of communications for LWSD, said the middle schools will be affected. About 44 students will be moving from a Redmond Middle School (RMS) feeder school to an EMS feeder school.

Reith said even with these students moving to EMS, RMS, which has a classroom capacity of 1,058, is still projected to be overcrowded with 1,137 students by the 2017-18 school year. EMS, which has a classroom capacity of 1,120, is projected to have 1,025 students by that year.

In addition to overcrowding the school itself, some parents with children at EMS and or Emily Dickinson Elementary School have concerns about how safe that area will be with the addition of more vehicles and students.

Jen Boon, who has a child each at Rosa Parks, EMS and Redmond High School (RHS), said there are no sidewalks or curbs along 208th Avenue Northeast (where the schools are located) or turning lanes. There is also not much police patrolling the area to ensure people drive safely.

Meghan Iverson, who has three children at Dickinson and one at EMS, added that with the district projecting more than 1,000 students — as well as staff and faculty — in a building originally built to accommodate 672 (not including portable classrooms), that will add stress to the 30-year-old septic tank that the school and Dickinson utilize.

In response to Iverson’s concerns, Gupta wondered aloud if this was an issue the district even considered.

Julianne Bogaty, who has two children at Rosa Parks, added that the re-boundary process would have been a good opportunity for LWSD to look at the bigger picture and figure out how to manage the area’s growth, but they missed it.

“We’re tired of it,” she said about how this has not been the first time she feels LWSD has made mistakes in managing its growth.

MAJOR CHANGES IN REDMOND

Reith said while changes will be made throughout the district, the Redmond learning community will have the most. A total of 801 current students districtwide will be shifted and about 414 will be from Redmond-area schools. According to the district website, about 109 of the students affected will be from future housing developments.

The first change in LWSD’s Redmond learning community will be 79 current students — and one future student — moving from Louisa May Alcott Elementary School in Redmond to Elizabeth Blackwell Elementary School in Sammamish.

“These are all students within the Inglewood Middle School (IMS) and Eastlake High School (EHS) boundary,” Reith said, referring to two secondary schools in Sammamish.

She said up to this point, Alcott has been a split-feeder school, meaning students at the school move up to attend either Evergreen Middle School (EMS) or IMS.

“That change is never easy,” Reith said.

With this boundary change, all Alcott students will move up to attend EMS.

The second change coming will be to have a student currently living north of Novelty Hill Road Northeast and east of Redmond Ridge transfer from Dickinson to Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary School in Woodinville. Reith said this single student had been taking a bus to Dickinson, but moving them to Wilder will put them with the rest of the neighbors in their cul-de-sac.

And with space opening up at Alcott, Reith said there will be a west-to-east shift with 135 students from Dickinson moving to that school.

The space these Dickinson students leave open from their move will be for the 92 current students who will be coming in from Albert Einstein Elementary School — four of which are future students.

In addition, 67 students from Norman Rockwell Elementary School in the Abbey Road neighborhood of Redmond will be moving to Horace Mann Elementary School in Redmond. Reith said Abbey Road is actually closer to Mann and the school has space for the students.

There will also be 44 Avalon Parkplace students from Rockwell moving to Redmond Elementary School.

Reith said the district made some temporary boundary changes to accommodate development on Education Hill, but those changes will revert back, sending 29 Mann students back to Einstein and 65 future students back to Rockwell.

And finally, 10 future students slated for Wilder will be moving to Einstein.

DISCONNECTED

While the board and superintendent congratulated themselves Monday evening for doing a good job on the re-boundary process, community members in attendance at Monday’s meeting, which lasted about four hours, did not think so.

Gupta said the meeting appeared to be scripted and that the feedback people provided during the public comments portion did not matter.

Looking at how many students in the Redmond learning community will be affected — 228 in and out of Dickinson alone — Iverson voiced her concerns about whether the district is really looking out for its students.

“Who is protecting the kids in our schools?” she asked.

Bogaty added that there seems to be a disconnect between the district and the community and there seemed to be a lack of transparency throughout the boundary process. She said data provided by the district was not always accurate and the community did not always receive information in time to really consider things and provide meaningful feedback.

Jason Flaks, whose two kids are at Benjamin Rush Elementary School in Redmond (in the district’s Lake Washington learning community), agreed. He attended Monday’s meeting and felt the board of directors and superintendent had little empathy for those who would be impacted by the changes.

“I really find that to be disgraceful,” he said.

Flaks said while the district said one of its objectives is to keep neighborhoods intact, he does not feel they are doing that. For example, he said there is an apartment complex in Redmond that will be split in half, with some students attending John James Audubon Elementary School in Redmond and 28 students moving over to Ben Rush. In addition, 21 students will be moving from Ben Rush to Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Kirkland, Flaks said. With such a small number of students moving in these scenarios, he does not see how the district can’t just accommodate for them instead of tearing neighborhoods apart.

Flaks said in these situations, the district is not taking into account individual students’ needs such as the extremely shy ones like one of his daughters. He said another parent at Monday’s meeting brought up students with special needs who struggle academically and or socially, and now moving schools would be even more difficult for them.

“(The district is) jeopardizing my children and other children,” Flaks said.