by Jim Boyle
Editor
The Elk River Area School Board has backed away from its intentions of adopting boundary line changes at Twin Lakes Elementary School for the 2016-17 school year.
Instead, a decision has been made to craft a one-year plan to keep the boundary lines as they are and create a longer-term plan that takes care of the center of the district for many years to come.
“We are concerned about the potential growth in the eastern portion of Elk River and the long-term impact it may have throughout the center of the district,” Board Chairwoman Holly Thompson said in a prepared statement. “Therefore, we will not act on the recommendation from the 4004 Committee, and we will refer this matter to Superintendent Bezek to develop an acceptable one-year, short-term plan for Twin Lakes, and to coordinate a community, constituent-led, long-term plan for the center of the district.”
Thompson said it’s not that the School Board does not support the work of the 4004 Committee that recommended a plan to reduce crowding at Twin Lakes by 200 students at first and then 150 students after a community meeting.
“We do, and we are grateful for their time and effort,” Thompson said. “Their work has garnered the attention of the many constituents that have expressed their respective views. We need to take more time to develop a long-range plan beyond the three-year proposal.”
Bezek will present options to the board on March 21 on what a short-term fix could look like and an approach to resolving the situation long-term, anywhere from five to 15 years.
The school chief said School Board members got tremendous pressure from parents, child care providers and school staff, and they found themselves wanting to find the right thing to do for the long term rather than something that could conceivably only last three years due to expected growth.
Resistance to the proposed boundary line plan came on several fronts, including from a contingent that did not want to go to Lincoln Elementary School, which is next in line for elementary school renovations.
The process for devising boundary lines in the future is expected to draw a wider net of community participation and earlier to engage the whole center of the school district, including representation from three schools with declining enrollment in Lincoln and Meadowvale elementary schools and VandenBerge Middle School as well as Twin Lakes and Parker Elementary School, which are growing in enrollment.
“Given the parameters they were given, the committee did a great job,” Bezek said. “There’s just a concern that we won’t meet our long-term needs with the plan. The board wants a longer-term fix without saying we need to build another school.”
He said the district also plans to do a demographic study districtwide to examine the district’s projected growth and its capture rate. The district has been growing, but its capture rate has not kept pace.
The March 21 meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in Room 105, the community room at Elk River High School. Bezek said there are some new and exciting options the board will be asked to consider for next year, but none that he could tip his hand to at this time.