Attendance Boundaries Process

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District families and staff members,

At this week’s School Board Work Session, we provided an update on the attendance boundaries process, including a recommendation for implementation that was reviewed with the Board. The recommendation will be included as an action item on the Feb. 14, 2022 School Board Regular Meeting agenda.

You may recall that we formed committees made up of parents and staff members representing each school to study proposals and give feedback earlier this school year. Concurrently, all district families and staff could attend the meetings or view the plans the committee studied and give feedback via a survey.

After much discussion and gathered feedback, the recommendation discussed at the Board Work Session, which will be coming to the Board for action at the February School Board Meeting, is a plan to proceed with changed attendance boundaries in two phases:

• Phase One in Fall of 2022:
  • We will implement elementary attendance boundary changes in the northern end of the district for Oneka and North Star Elementary, with North Star Elementary opening with students attending in September. 
  • Middle School attendance boundaries changes will also be implemented in the fall of 2022.
• Phase Two in the Fall of 2023:
  • We will implement the remaining elementary attendance boundary changes for Birch Lake, Lakeaires, Lincoln, Matoska International, Otter Lake, Vadnais Heights and Willow Lane Elementary Schools.

This phased approach will provide families time to plan for the changes, which was a theme we heard through survey results and from attendees at the stakeholder committee meetings. 

After board action is taken at the Feb. 14, 2022 School Board meeting, we will reach out to families whose child’s assigned school is Oneka or North Star Elementary and to those families whose child’s assigned middle school will change starting in the Fall of 2022 and let them know next steps. Those families who live in areas in boundaries that will change in Phase One will have the following options:

• Attend their assigned home school.
• Apply to intra-district transfer to remain at their current home school when the boundary has changed, starting in the Fall of 2022. Transportation will not be provided.

We will also reach out to all elementary families whose child’s home school will change starting in the Fall of 2023, letting them know the options they have for this fall and into the future. Those families who live in areas in boundaries that will change in Phase Two will have the following options:

• Attend their assigned home school each year, which will mean they will attend their current home school in 2022-23 and switch to their new home school in 2023-24.
• Apply to intra-district transfer into their new home school a year early, in the Fall of 2022. Transportation will not be provided for the intra-district transfer year of 2022-23.
• Attend their current home school for 2022-23 and apply to intra-district transfer to remain at their current home school when the boundary has changed, starting in the Fall of 2023. Transportation will be provided for 2022 -23 but will not be provided beyond that year.

In the meantime, please feel free to find additional information on the district’s website. Details about the Attendance Boundaries Process, including a description of the process, the draft of attendance boundaries, the attendance boundary design framework, presentations and meeting materials, and a Q&A can be found at www.isd624.org/AttendanceBoundariesProcess. 

Thank you to the families, staff and community members for your involvement in this process.

Dr. Wayne Kazmierczak, Superintendent