Public to get 2nd chance to discuss school boundaries

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The committee has been working for several months on several boundary issues. With the planned opening of Cleveland High School in 2009, the district is looking to realign borders to provide relief to overcrowded schools, plan for expected population growth and try to align schools to feed to two different high schools.

Last fall the committee recommended that Northern Boulevard be the dividing line between Rio Rancho High and Cleveland High. That proposal that was approved by the school board in December.

The committee has come up two options for boundary changes, called Option 15A and Option 15B. Option 15A proposes several changes listed below, while 15B makes some minor modifications of 15A.

Those in attendance expressed concerns about having their children move to different schools for different reasons. Some said it isn't fair to their children to move them when boundaries may be re-drawn again in the future to accommodate future growth. At least three parents identified their children as having "special needs" that the district has been able to help with by establishing trusting, familiar relationships with teachers and principals that might be broken up by changing schools.

School officials pointed out that many faculty members will be moving to new schools as well to create some continuity.

Some questioned why new schools will be opened at less than capacity while others are as much as more than 150 percent of capacity, and why other schools will be opened with complete facilities while some existing schools don't have playground equipment or basketball courts.

Superintendent Sue Cleveland pointed out that the district has been playing catchup since it was born from the Albuquerque, Bernalillo and Jemez Valley districts on July 1, 1994.

"The day we opened we could have filled five more schools," she said. "Lincoln Middle School had more than 1,600 students and one elementary had more than 1,200. Two-thirds of our buildings were portables.

Cleveland said it is possible the district's budget could be frozen for three or four years if a proposed funding formula revision passes the Legislature this year. Poorer-performing districts might be getting more money to help their students, leaving less money for rapid-growth districts like Rio Rancho.

"It's like a chess game, and it's a very frustrating chess game to us," she said. "Don't think they are sitting up there in Santa Fe thinking about ways to give money. They are thinking about ways not to give money.

"It's a struggle. And it is going to be a struggle for a while."

Here is an overview of both plans, as provided by the district:
 

Option 15A 

Option 15 A creates attendance boundaries for the new Cielo Azul and Sandia Vista elementary schools. To do so, it moves some students currently attending Vista Grande, Enchanted Hills, Colinas del Norte and Ernest Stapleton elementary schools.

The committee also recommended some adjustments to the Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Elementary boundaries that also affect some students attending Rio Rancho Elementary. This is in an effort to provide limited relief to the high enrollment at MLK. 

MLK should get additional relief when a future elementary school is built, and the recommended changes to the MLK boundary would not require any of the affected students to move again when the new school’s boundaries are established.

The boundaries of the two remaining schools, Puesta del Sol and Maggie Cordova, would remain as is for now, and would be adjusted when the future elementary opens. 

Summary of Option15A:

• Creates an attendance area for Cielo Azul elementary school which includes:

Ø       All of Northern Meadows north of King Rd. west of 10^th St., and north of 28^th Ave. (Paseo del Volcan) east of 10^th St.  The remaining portion of Northern Meadows would remain at Colinas del Norte

Ø       The City Center area (with very few current homes) between Progress Blvd. and Paseo del Volcan, extending east to the 40^th St. alignment (Terrene and Ilium Rd. NE)

• Creates an attendance area for Sandia Vista Elementary School which includes:

Ø       The Enchanted Hills subdivision east of Paseo del Volcan 

Ø       Rivers Edge III

Ø       The area east of Ilium Rd. (41^st St. alignment), south of Progress Blvd, and north of Paseo del Volcan, extending eastward south of Vapata Rd. and Pasilla Rd. to NM 528, and eastward between Rivers Edge II and III to the district boundary.  Students on Pasilla Rd. east of Chayote Rd. would attend Sandia Vista.  Students on Pasilla Rd. west of Chayote would attend Enchanted Hills.

• Downsizes Colinas del Norte by moving 688 students currently in the Colinas attendance area to Cielo Azul

• Downsizes Ernest Stapleton by moving all of North Hills to Colinas del Norte, and some other portions of the attendance area to Enchanted Hills

• Downsizes Enchanted Hills ES by moving the northern portion of its attendance area to Sandia Vista

• Downsizes Vista Grande by moving the eastern portion of its attendance area (east of Paseo del Volcan) to Sandia Vista

• Provides limited relief to Martin Luther King, Jr. elementary by moving:

Ø       To Stapleton Elementary: the area bordered by Abrazo Rd. to the south, Chessman Rd. to the east, Idalia Rd. to the north, and Unser Blvd. to the west

Ø       To Rio Rancho Elementary: the area east of Broadmoor Dr. between High Resort Blvd. and Country Club Dr.

MLK’s enrollment will still be relatively high, but MLK will most likely receive relief when the next new elementary school opens.  By waiting to make more drastic boundary adjustments, the committee hopes to avoid moving students twice: now, and when the new school opens

• Maintains the current attendance boundaries for Puesta del Sol and Maggie Cordova: these two schools would receive relief when the next new elementary school opens
  

Advantages to Option 15A:

* Creates an attendance area for Cielo Azul that allows for some growth

* Creates an attendance area for Sandia Vista with ample allowance for growth

* Provides some, and in some cases significant enrollment relief to all of the district’s most crowded schools in a way that would not move students twice when the next elementary school is built (possibly as early as 2009, depending on when the state funds the project)

*  Begins the process of establishing “pure feeder” alignments for elementary schools through middle school through the new high school by greatly reducing the amount of Stapleton’s attendance area that is north of Northern.  To establish pure feeder alignment, the remaining areas in the Stapleton zone north of Northern will eventually have to be zoned to another elementary school north of Northern.

* Moves many students to a school closer to where they live.  These adjustments in the long term will better serve students

* Will greatly help to improve school bus transportation routing and delivery of students by reducing loading times at overcrowded schools and shortening the distances buses will have to travel to deliver students

 *  Relatively good for transportation and bus routing

Disadvantages to Option 15A: 

ü       Moves a couple of neighborhoods with long-established relationships with a school

ü       Does not provide immediate enrollment relief to every Rio Rancho school

ü       Opens Cielo Azul with a larger enrollment than is customary for a new school

Option 15 B:

Option 15B makes one change to the proposed boundaries under 15A.  In Option 15B, students in the Martin Luther King, Jr. attendance area living east of Broadmoor and south of High Resort would remain at MLK as opposed to moving to Rio Rancho Elementary.  All other aspects of 15B are the same as 15A.