The first of three informational meetings the Jefferson City Public Schools district plans to host on its proposal to re-draw some pockets of boundary lines was lightly attended Thursday night.
Among the 16 audience members present - 10 of whom were staff of East Elementary, where the meeting was held and where overcrowding prompted the proposal - the plan seemed to be accepted, albeit with questions.
"At the end of the day, we want to make sure kids are served," said Delora Scaggs, a behavior interventionist at East Elementary.
Scaggs spoke to the concern that shuffling students from East to Thorpe J. Gordon and Moreau Heights elementary schools would put undue pressure on the resources of those institutions.
JCPS Superintendent Larry Linthacum agreed the district had to be sure those other schools had the resources they needed to take on additional students.
Linthacum also said the district recognized the possibility that future growth on the east side of the city could create a need for more space at East before the next bond issue question that could fund the construction of a new elementary school.
The district wants to use its re-drawing plan to give them the ability to stop using a trailer for classroom space at East, but Linthacum said they would have to be absolutely sure they wouldn't need the trailer again in the near future before moving it from the site.
"We would do what we'd have to do," he said regarding the trailer and the possibility of bringing it back, but he added whatever had to be done in the future, the district would keep in communication with the community.
He reiterated what he shared Monday night at JCPS's regular monthly Board of Education meeting - if the proposal for a second high school passes in April, the next bond issue proposal - in April 2021 or 2022 - would include construction of an elementary facility at the East McCarty site.
Sonya Spruiell, a social worker at East, asked if the trailer was taken away, where would the classes go that use it now.
Linthacum said he didn't know, but JCPS Director of Elementary Education Brian Shindorf said the proposed re-drawing of boundary lines would move enough students away from East that the school would have one less first- and fourth-grade class.
Currently, two first-grade classes use the trailer for classroom space.
Shindorf said that's if the re-drawing happened today, based on the most recent student population numbers. The proposed re-drawing would move 66 students away from East - lowering the number of students there from 403 to 337.
Shindorf also said just because a first- and fourth-grade class could leave the building that doesn't mean a first- and fourth-grade teacher would also leave.
If or when students move, he said the district works with staff to decide who needs to follow them to another school - first based on the chance to volunteer and then on seniority.
Shindorf and Linthacum added the district will give fourth-grade students who go to East now - but would be sent either to Thorpe Gordon or Moreau Heights in the proposed re-drawing of boundaries - the option to stay at East for fifth grade.
Shindorf said this represents nine students. If numbers allow for it, younger siblings of these students at East would also be allowed to stay if their fifth-grade brother or sister does.
"We want to do what's best for families," Shindorf said, adding it's best for families to stay together if at all possible.
Currently, students who live in the areas under consideration to be shifted into the territory of another elementary school are bused to East because they live across U.S. 50 from the school.
However, Shindorf said under the plan, next year those buses will not be going to East.
The district's proposed plan for re-drawing some boundary lines is set to be an agenda item at the board's next regular meeting on Feb. 13 at Simonsen 9th Grade Center.
The next two informational meetings on the subject are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Thorpe Gordon, and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Moreau Heights.