Boundary proposals face minor revisions

Board wants different plan for northern elementaries

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The two changes brought out a larger than normal crowd in the 63-seat board room, but an overflow location was not required. Only five members of the public spoke to the board on three boundary issues – providing additional relief from overcrowding at Vista Grande and Martin Luther King elementary schools and looking at the so-called “Abrazo Triangle” bordered by Unser, Abrazo, Chessman and Idalia.

The board approved almost all of the proposals recommended by a 60-plus member boundary committee, but wants to take a second look at the lines regarding elementary schools in the northern part of the city. Any changes from Option 15C, as the committee’s recommendation is called, could impact three elementary schools: Vista Grande, Enchanted Hills and the new Sandia Vista that will open next year.

Vista Grande, the northernmost of the three schools, has been operating at or above capacity is 650-student capacity almost since the day it opened by using portable buildings. Sandia Vista is being built in large part to provide relief to Vista Grande and give the district more room to handle the large growth in that part of the city.

The district prefers to open new schools well under capacity to give faculty and students a chance to adjust, but the consensus of the board was that the 350 to 400 student range as a starter for Sandia Vista was too little given the overcrowding at Vista Grande.

In its defense, the boundary committee made its decisions in hopes of minimizing the number of changes that might be required in the future. Another new elementary school is likely to open in northern Rio Rancho within the next two or three years, forcing another adjustment of Vista Grande and Sandia Vista boundaries.

And the committee operated under the assumption that proposed expansion of Vista Grande to the district’s preferred capacity of 800 would happen sooner rather than later. But limited funds from the state Legislature could put that project on hold yet again.

The board’s reluctance to accept the proposed changes could have the added benefit of not splitting up the Rivers Edge subdivisions east of NM 528. The boundary committee had recommended that students who live in the Rivers Edge III, the northernmost of the three subdivisions, be moved from Enchanted Hills Elementary to Sandia Vista, breaking up a neighborhood in a way many parents objected to at a public forum last week. But to provide more relief for Vista Grande in the north means likely means less shifting of students at Enchanted Hills, the southernmost school.

Surprisingly none of the parents who live in Rivers Edge III attended Monday’s meeting, perhaps thinking the shift was a done deal.

At least one public forum will be scheduled for the end of this week to consider options for the elementary changes, most likely on Friday at Vista Grande. The district likes to have day and evening sessions to allow parents to attend while their child is at school or after a traditional workday, depending on the home situation, but may only have time for one forum this time. The district faces a Feb. 29 deadline in order to hire staff and wants to avoid a meeting on two coming holidays, St. Valentine’s Day (Thursday, Feb. 14) and President’s Day (Monday, Feb. 18).

As it is, any public forum is most likely to meet Friday, followed by a boundary committee meeting that day to formally adopt any changes to present to a special board meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 19.

In choosing to go off the accelerated block schedule at both the high school and mid-high, the district is attempting to address lower test scores and avoid government intervention due to low performance. It also wants to work out any schedule issues before the new Cleveland High School opens in the fall of 2009.

The proposal has been changed slightly since initially presented to the public last month. Incoming 2009 freshmen will need 28 credits to graduate, up from 27 in the initial proposal, and before-and-after school detention periods have been built in the schedule as well.

Under he new bell schedule, seven class periods of 49 minutes in length will be offered starting at 7:20 a.m. A “flex period” in the middle of the day will incorporate a 25-minute lunch break with a 19-minute period that could be used for tutoring or added to the preceding period for a longer timeframe for performance-based classes such as music or dance.

Upper-level students who are performing well in class and are on schedule to graduate could also have that time added to their lunch.

The district has been looking to move away from the block schedule for several years as several performance indicators have slipped and left the high school under “corrective action” status, one step away from possible state intervention. By going to the new schedule, students will now have English, math, science and social studies classes every day for all four years in high school.

Under the block schedule, some students could finish their requirements in core courses in their junior years, leaving a large gap before they resume a subject in college. The result: 42 percent of Rio Rancho High graduates needed post-secondary remediation classes in math and reading. Also, only 62.1 percent of students were considered “proficient and above” in reading and 52 percent in math on state tests.

The schedule also calls for an alternate schedule on the second day of the week with classes five minutes shorter to allow for staff meetings to start the day.

Students could still graduate early by taking classes in the summer, online or other adjunct programs or during “zero hour” that would start at 6:35 a.m. The district is looking at ways to beef up its summer programs to allow students to get ahead or catch up, depending on their needs.

Though the new schedule lengthens the currently school day, the district hopes a new two-tier transportation system will mean students who ride the bus to school won’t be picked up much earlier than now.

In other business, the board:

• Approved Policy 406 to come into state compliance regarding text book distribution and access.

• Approved the 2008-09 school calendar, with classes to begin in the second full week of August depending on grade level. The calendar has only one built-in makeup day – President’s Day – meaning students could face classes after Memorial Day if there is more than one postponement.

• Heard an initial report from Wendy Scanlon of the Central New Mexico YMCA regarding a possible eight-acre lease of land owned by the school district to build the city’s first YMCA facility, including a swimming pool, near the new Cleveland High.