The Spokane Public Schools unveil new sweeping limit proposals

It has been almost 40 years since the Spokane Public Schools changed their boundaries extensively.

The reasons for this were clear on Wednesday evening when the district board of directors first looked at the proposed changes, which would affect thousands of students and their families for decades.

The proposal is the result of more than a year of meetings of a 40-member committee. It’s far-reaching, comprehensive, and is sure to generate a strong community response.

New boundaries are necessary as three new middle schools to be named are added and sixth graders are transferred to these schools.

That alone will force significant changes in the district’s feeder pattern. By the fall of 2023, when all three new buildings are completed, more than four in ten students could see a change in their future middle school assignment.

However, the committee took the opportunity to make further improvements: consolidating the boundaries, reducing transportation time for many students, growth plans, and keeping as many students as possible on the same feeder pattern.

The proposal calls for 99% of elementary school students to continue their cohort in the same middle school.

“Research shows that children do better when they stay together,” said assistant superintendent Mark Anderson on Wednesday.

In a difficult balancing act, however, the committee was unable to address some of the district’s socio-economic inequalities, which are defined in the document as the percentage of students receiving free and discounted meals in school.

For example, the district responded to a long-standing complaint from residents of the Indian Trail civic neighborhood, where students have been taken to North Central High School for decades.

Starting next year, as part of the plan, these students would visit nearby Shadle Park. However, the change would mean 68% of North Central students would get a free and discounted lunch. that would be an increase from the current 57%.

Ferris would also see an increase from 38% to 42%, while Lewis and Clark – already the most favored high school in the district – would do so even more.

Under the proposal, LC’s low-income student population would decrease from 39% to 28%.

The plan would also create two new middle schools that would sit at demographic extremes. The visiting area for the new South Middle School would be mostly bourgeois neighborhoods, with a percentage of 32% free and discounted lunch being the lowest in the district.

In the meantime, the new middle school in the northeast would have the most difficult population in the city – 88% receive free and discounted meals.

At the beginning of the process, the committee was asked to consider the possibility of a fairer card. However, Anderson said this could not be achieved without blurring attendance lines and increasing transportation costs for bus students.

“The question was how can we enable so much diversity without blowing up the neighborhood cohort model,” said Anderson.

The proposal also streamlines the feeder pattern from middle to high school. From autumn 2022, Salk and the new Northwest School would feed into Shadle Park. Garry and Shaw would feed Rogers; and Glover and the new Northeast School would be feeding into North Central.

Other important proposed changes are:

• Hamblen Elementary School currently being fed into Chase is now being fed into the new Middle School in the south.

• Mullan Road elementary school students would move to the new middle school instead of Sacajawea.

• Students in Moran Prairie, Adams, Hutton, and Wilson would be separated when they reached middle school. They would reunite in high school, however.

• Some students in the fast-growing Finch Arboretum and River Run neighborhoods who are now visiting Hutton went to Finch Elementary in northwest Spokane instead. That, in turn, would bring some students to Holmes and Audubon.

• Stevens Elementary, which is currently being fed into three different middle schools, would feed into the new northeast building.

• Some elementary school students in the Qualchan area would be transferred from Wilson to Hutton.

The changes would take effect in the fall of 2022 on the north side of the school district and a year later on the south side.

The upheaval would be mitigated by a grandfather or legacy proposal that would affect some students who would otherwise be dragged away from their current schools.

The district hopes to have the borders ready by the end of June, but plans to receive feedback from the community through a series of virtual public forums on April 15, 19, and 22.

The public will have another opportunity to speak at a board meeting on June 2nd.

The district has not made any major boundary changes since 1982, when ninth graders were transferred to high schools.