Redrawing boundaries could address some crowding issues

Jefferson City's East Elementary School has made some major improvements over the recent years, including better lighting, more colorful appearance and cushioned gym flooring.
Jefferson City's East Elementary School has made some major improvements over the recent years, including better lighting, more colorful appearance and cushioned gym flooring.

Recent proposals to redraw pockets of elementary school boundary lines in the Jefferson City Public Schools district are grounded in allegations that one school in particular is the most overcrowded and has been for generations.

Statistics do bear out that East Elementary students have the least amount of space in their school compared to others in the district. But, it is not the most overcrowded school when overcrowding is measured by student population, and the district has at least initially drafted a plan to begin to address the school's space issue by the next school year.

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AP/The Star

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Which school is most overcrowded?

The JCPS Board of Education is positioned to place on the April 4 ballot a $130-million bond issue to build a new high school and remodel the existing one. The bond issue would be paid through a 65-cent levy increase for construction costs, as well as a 55-cent levy to pay for staffing at the new high school and continuing needs of the existing K-12 system. The board expects to certify the ballot language and place it on the April 4 ballot Thursday.

Much of the public criticism about the district's two high school plan has stemmed from a desire to also ask voters to approve funding to build another elementary school on the east side of the city to address overcrowding issues at East Elementary.

In the district, East has the fifth highest number of students in attendance, but it has the least amount of space per student in its building.

As of Jan. 6, the JCPS elementary school with the most students is Pioneer Trail, at 563, according to data provided by Brian Shindorf, JCPS director of elementary education, and Jason Hoffman, chief financial officer and chief operating officer of the district.

Clarence Lawson Elementary comes in second place with 442 students, and Belair Elementary rounds out the top three with 415.

East has 394 students.

East ranks as the most overcrowded of the district's elementary and middle schools when measuring the space per student. At East, the space is measured at 100.8 square feet per child. By comparison, Lewis and Clark Middle School allocates the most space per student at 150.2 square feet. Thorpe J. Gordon Elementary comes in second at 147.3 square feet per student.

The calculations do not take into account square footage added to buildings by mobile trailers.

Each trailer in the district is 1,800 square feet, said Bob Weber, JCPS director of facilities and transportation.

Callaway Hills Elementary, East and Pioneer Trail each have a trailer, but Callaway Hills' trailer is used only for storage at the moment.

It's unclear if adding the trailers actually increased the amount of space available for students or were only intended to try to keep up with growth of the student populations at these schools.

The square footage numbers of each building are from the December 2013 School Facilities Appraisal conducted by architectural firm ACI Boland, and Hoffman and Weber confirmed these numbers are still accurate today.

 

Which school has the most students per teacher?

There is no state statutory or regulatory minimum standard for how many square feet per student an elementary school building must have, according to Sarah Potter, communications coordinator for Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Communication (DESE).

But, the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) does have a maximum standard of how many students can be in one classroom at a time, she said.

While the district concedes many of its elementary schools are either overcrowded or approaching being overcrowded - Lawson expects to see a trailer there starting next year - the district does do well in keeping its student-to-teacher ratios below maximum state standards.

At JCPS, every grade from kindergarten through second - except first grade at Callaway Hills - meets the MSIP standard of no more than 25 students per classroom. Callaway Hills' first grade averages 26.5, but Shindorf said a para-professional assists in the classroom to make up for the difference.

Second grade at Thorpe Gordon is right at the maximum standard at 25. Otherwise, many of the other grades at the other elementary schools meet or exceed the desirable standard for kindergarten through second grade of 20 students per teacher.

When it comes to third- and fourth-graders, the maximum standard is 27 students per teacher, and the desirable standard is 22. For fifth grade, the maximum standard is 30, and the desirable standard is 25.

Every elementary school in the district meets the standards for these grades. All but Cedar Hill's third-grade classes; the fourth-grade classes at Belair, Callaway Hills, Pioneer Trail and South; and the fifth-grade classes at Callaway Hills and East meet the desirable standards - and Shindorf said there is another para-professional to assist the fifth-grade teachers at East.

Lewis and Clark Middle School had an average of 14 students per teacher across grade levels, and Thomas Jefferson Middle School has 16 students per teacher, according to data from DESE current as of Oct. 26.

 

What would redrawing boundaries accomplish?

In the wake of residents' concerns over overcrowding, JCPS is proposing redrawing some of its elementary school boundaries as a first step to address the issue.

The proposal being considered would add 57 students to Thorpe Gordon's population and nine at Moreau Heights, and it would decrease East's population by 66 students.

At Thorpe Gordon, that would mean about 24.2 fewer square feet per student, at and Moreau Heights, it would be about 3 square feet fewer per student. East would see an increase of about 20.2 square feet per student.

For perspective, an average small entry foyer to a house is about 47 square feet, according to the National Association of Homebuilders.

At East, the increase would mean each student would have 121 square feet in space. At Thorpe Gordon, each student would have 123.1 square feet and about 127 square feet at Moreau Heights.

The average number of square feet per student in the district's elementary and middle schools is currently 129.7.

 

When will school board look at redrawing boundaries elsewhere?

People at public presentations about the district's April ballot proposals have voiced frustration with years of unfulfilled promises - over multiple board administrations - to do something about overcrowding at East.

This time around, the board says it wants to eliminate the need for a trailer at East by the beginning of the 2017-18 school year through its redrawing plan.

The board will place its plan as an actionable agenda item at its Feb. 13 meeting.

There is no set timeline yet on addressing other boundary lines in the district, JCPS Superintendent Larry Linthacum said Thursday at the first of three scheduled informational meetings about the proposed elementary boundary line changes. The remaining two informational meetings will be held 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Thorpe Gordon Elementary and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Moreau Heights Elementary.

Linthacum did say the board would reconvene with the district's Long Range Facility Planning Committee after the April 4 election and start to explore options.

He did not want to commit to specific dates, but he said over the next couple years the district will communicate any other boundary line changes it may propose - whether they be "wholesale" or "tweaks."