Jefferson City Public Schools' volunteer boundary line committee has a more solidified, but not formal, sense of direction after a Monday meeting at the Miller Performing Arts Center.
JCPS formed its boundary line committee of 32 volunteers late last year to represent each of the district's elementary schools as the committee forms recommendations for the district's Board of Education on how to create equity in enrollment and poverty levels between Capital City High School and Jefferson City High School.
Thirteen members of the committee were present Monday evening a meeting with Superintendent Larry Linthacum - a 14th member arrived near the end and was given an update. All of the district's elementary schools except for West Elementary School were represented by at least one person.
The district's Chief Financial and Operating Officer Jason Hoffman, Chief of Learning Brian Shindorf, Director of Elementary Education Lorie Rost, Director of Secondary Education Gary Verslues and Director of School-Community Relations Amy Berendzen were present as well.
By the end of the meeting, the committee members who were present had agreed upon a general direction for possible boundary line changes:
The group chose three scenarios - out of five that had previously been determined to be most optimal - to consider presenting to the community at two town hall meetings that will be scheduled in the coming weeks, one at Lewis and Clark Middle School and the other at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.
Scenario A would not change the existing middle school boundary lines that determine which high school students would go to - CCHS for Thomas Jefferson students, and JCHS for Lewis and Clark students.
All Thorpe Gordon Elementary School students would attend Lewis and Clark in this scenario, and from there they would attend JCHS. Thorpe Gordon's student body currently splits between the two middle schools.
The enrollment difference between the two high schools would be 59 students - JCHS would have an attendance at the beginning of fall 2019 of 1,262 students, and CCHS would have 1,203. JCHS would have space for 238 more students, and there would be space for 297 more at CCHS. JCHS would have 52.1 percent of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the percentage at CCHS would be 49 percent.
The measurement of free or reduced-price lunch eligibility at a school is how the poverty level at a school is calculated.
Scenarios B and C also would keep Thorpe Gordon unified. The difference between these two options and Scenario A is where 37 students who live in an area near the site of CCHS would attend. The area is roughly bounded by Edgewood Drive and Frog Hollow Road to the north; Frog Hollow Road to the west; Rock Ridge Road, Glenstone Drive and Plymouth Rock Drive to the south; and Rolling Hills Drive and Creek Trail Drive to the east.
The site of CCHS is on the north side of Mission Drive off Missouri 179.
In one of the other scenarios, the 37 students who currently attend Cedar Hill Elementary School instead would attend South Elementary School. Cedar Hill students currently attend JCHS, so the change to South would send them to Thomas Jefferson for middle school then CCHS.
In the other of the two scenarios, the 37 students would stay at Cedar Hill for elementary school, but then still go to Thomas Jefferson and then CCHS.
Under either scenario, the free and reduced-price lunch eligibility percentage for students at JCHS would be 52.2 percent and 48.9 percent at CCHS.
Linthacum said the direction of these choices is preliminary, and the community will still have a chance at the town halls and in front of the board to offer input.
Linthacum said there also would be a recommendation from the boundary line committee for a grace period for whatever changes may happen.
Current Thorpe Gordon students who begin sixth grade this fall would get a chance to continue attending the middle school and then the high school they would under current attendance boundary lines. Impacted siblings would also be given a grace period that would last five or six years. Transportation would not be provided by the district to students who utilize a grace period, though.
The committee members present also agreed to draft and present to the board a procedural policy measure suggested at the meeting by member Brad Bates to have a mechanism in place to trigger the district to look into adjusting boundary lines if the free and reduced-price lunch eligibility percentage at the middle and high school grade levels has a difference of more than a certain percentage after for two consecutive years.
Linthacum added he hopes the district looks at boundary lines every three to five years in the future anyway.