Lake Stevens Boundary
Review Committee begins work

District hopes to have new boundaries set by 2008-2009 school year Twenty-seven community members along with district administrators and board members began the boundary review process on Tuesday, Jan. 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the district’s Educational Service Center.

The Lake Stevens School District will be undertaking a boundary adjustment process during the next few months in order to be prepared to adjust student attendance at the start of the 2008-2009 school year. The committee will be asked to study the school boundary areas for Hillcrest, Sunnycrest, Highland and Mt. Pilchuck schools and to recommend a proposal that would balance the elementary student populations at those schools.

District policy provides some guiding principles for this process. The following guidelines are included in Board Policy No. 5010:

A. Minimize disruption of student’s established learning programs.

B. Maintain established neighborhood groupings.

C. Keep siblings in the same elementary school.

D. Maintain relationships with a middle school and or high school attendance area.

E. Adjust class loads to available space.

F. Coordinate transportation routes with attendance areas.

The committee will be facilitated by David Toyer, a local consultant from Toyer Consulting & Advocacy, and a Lake Stevens High School and Western Washington University graduate. He has worked and lived in this community and has supported the efforts of this district in many ways including work with the most recent bond and levy elections.

It will be Mr. Toyer’s charge to facilitate the process in an efficient, effective and comprehensive manner, which is guided by board policy.

The first meeting will consist of orientation and information, review of parameters and guiding principles, timelines, and decision making procedures. It is expected that the committee will have a recommendation to present to the board of directors in April 2008.

During the process community members and parents will have the opportunity to attend one of two community forums to enable the committee to gather board-based community input during the decision making process. The district will announce those dates as soon as they are planned by the committee.

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