Flagstaff Unified School District splits attendance east-west

Jun 18, 2010 — The Arizona Daily Sun

Hillary Davis

Jun. 17, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- What's old is new again: Flagstaff Unified School District is going back to a two-high school, east-west configuration.

Also, families taking advantage of open enrollment, or boundary exemptions, might not be disturbed next year.

A split school board decided Wednesday to put the proposed east-west boundary into place for middle and high schools effective this fall. Students living west of Fourth Street (except Sunnyside) will attend Mount Elden Middle School and Flagstaff High School, while those to the east will attend Sinagua Middle and Coconino High.

The elementary school plan went ahead as previously proposed as well, with South Beaver students mostly going to Kinsey, Christensen students going to Thomas and Cromer, and a few adjustments being made around the edges of many other schools' boundaries to balance numbers.

The board took no official action on boundary exemptions and related "grandfathering." But Superintendent Barbara Hickman said the next discussion, to be held next week, will focus on allowing last year's boundary-exempt students to stay in their schools until promotion to the next age group (from elementary to middle school, middle to high school or high school graduation.) Also, students who would have graduated from Sinagua High next spring could be allowed to choose where to attend 12th grade.

The board could not actually vote on boundary exemptions, an option that more than 2,500 families took advantage of last school year, because the issue was not listed on Wednesday's agenda. The board will do a first reading of an amended policy on June 22 and vote on it on June 29.

A few concessions have already been made, though. In adopting the new boundaries, the board agreed that students living in the densely populated, 5-block area (within walking distance) just east of Mount Elden Middle can pick their middle school, and students living in the Skyline area north of the Upper Greenlaw neighborhood already at Coconino can finish high school as Panthers instead of Flagstaff Eagles.

"This will give us clean feeder patterns for K-12 systems, which the principals have expressed as a priority. It is a traditional boundary for FUSD, and provides for balanced programs and efficient use of square footage," Hickman said in support of the general east-west set-up. "It does not impede the development of future magnet programs or other possible school choice options for the future."

All board members agreed to the previously proposed elementary and high school patterns -- there were no given alternatives, anyway. But they diverged when it came to middle schools, which had two finalist plans.

Deborah Harris, Sara Aleman and Chris Bavasi voted for the east-west plan, while Paul Kulpinski and Beth Heerding favored the north-south plan.

Kulpinski said the north-south plan, which would have used Interstate 40, Route 66 and Highway 89 as the dividing line, was better because it disrupted fewer students, balanced student populations, unified the curriculum and created the fewest exceptions or anomalies for families living closest to the schools.

It also ultimately would have benefitted the high schools, where district leaders are hoping to add more specialized magnet programs, by blurring what could be seen as exclusionary "tracking," he said.

For example, last year Mount Elden Middle School had a science and technology program to warm students up to the Coconino Institute of Technology at Coconino High, where many MEMS students used to end up.

"I think that by having those consistent feeder patterns, we set people up to have that perception," Kulpinski said. "Reality or not, they have that perception, which then might create a lost opportunity for students around the district."

Heerding supported the north-south plan not only because it would disrupt the fewest students but because it would encourage teens to make friends from around town.

The closures might have caused angst, but they were unavoidable, Bavasi said. However, there could be more leeway with input on boundaries "That means, from my perspective, less children are disrupted because their parents support this -- and frankly, when we have an opportunity to do something that the parents would like it's probably a good idea, if we can do it," he said.

The board may next consider allowing the would-have-been Sinagua High School Class of 2011 the choice between Flagstaff and Coconino high schools. The trade-off would be otherwise limiting high school boundary exceptions.

Assistant Superintendent Bob Kuhn said he did not expect unanimity among the 200 to 225 Sinagua seniors. But if an overwhelming majority picked Flagstaff High, the recently closed Flagstaff Middle School campus across the street could take the overflow. And overflow if everybody picked Coconino could be addressed by bringing in portables.

SCHOOL CLOSURE IMPACTS:

New schools:

--South Beaver: Kinsey (some to Marshall)

--Christensen: Thomas and Cromer

--Flagstaff Middle: Mount Elden Middle*

--Sinagua High: Coconino High (some to Flagstaff High)

--*Many MEMS students will move to Sinagua Middle

Feeder patterns*:

--Flagstaff High

--Mount Elden Middle

--Sechrist, Marshall, Kinsey, DeMiguel, Leupp

--Coconino High

--Sinagua Middle

--Killip, Thomas, Cromer, Knoles

--*Puente de Hozho, the 10th elementary school, is a "pure" magnet without attendance boundaries

Exceptions:

--Skyline neighborhood: high school students who had already started at Coconino can stay (affects about 30 students).

--East of Fourth/Greenlaw: middle school students living within five blocks of Mount Elden can choose between MEMS and Sinagua Middle (affects about 40 students).

--"Sinagua seniors" may choose between Flagstaff and Coconino highs, pending board approval (affects about 200-225 students).

--Boundary exemption grandfathering possible, at least through age groups (K-5, 6-8 or 9-12), pending board approval. Last year, about 2,500 students (about 24 percent) from K-12 were on boundary exemptions.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0065-46213376