School board proposes boundary tweaks

The Lewiston School Board heard a presentation on the new elementary school boundaries for the district.

Director of Student Services Kim Eimers shared the proposal for the boundaries based on the recommendation of a work group at the Monday meeting. The work group included Katie Hollingshead, who is an assistant city planner for Lewiston.

Eimers noted that elementary school principals, transportation and community members contributed to the group, which looked at enrollment, impacts on transportation, special education, safety, diversity and equity, socioeconomic groups and growth.

“This team was really good in working together and understanding why we needed to do what we needed to do,” Eimers said.

The group came up with a proposal that was presented to the community for review and now the board is looking at the plans. The board didn’t take action on the boundaries, but will at the Feb. 10 board meeting.

Hollingshead said the group met seven times before coming up with the final proposal. The demographics of the neighborhood have changed since the boundaries were last created.

Schools like Centennial and Camelot have seen an increase of students with newer housing being developed in those areas. Other areas have seen an increase in older populations rather than young families.

Webster has seen change with its proximity to Lewis-Clark State College and St. Joseph Regional Medical Center as those areas have more short-term rentals, which makes the population more transient.

Hollingshead said the group not only accounted for population changes that are taking place, but also looking five to 10 years in the future. The group got an interactive map from Nez Perce County so it could see which addresses and families were affected by the changes and how it impacted the schools.

The group also looked at transportation and travel to school to make sure students didn’t have to cross busy streets and buses could handle transport to schools. Transportation Supervisor Daniel Robertson noted the impact to his department was minimal with the changes.

“Every time we made a move, we saw what that did in the trickle-down effect,” Eimers said.

Out of 1,914 students, 275 addresses were part of the changing districts. However, enrolled students will have the option to stay at their school for the rest their elementary years or move to the new school. Eimers said families will get a letter with a form in that regard.

Superintendent Lance Hansen said the number of students who will be impacted is “zero” because all students will have the option to stay.

“No students are being removed from school,” Hansen said.

Hansen explained that the change will be gradual as kindergartners come into the new elementary school boundaries.

Hollingshead said the changes didn’t affect as many people as most thought. She said there wasn’t much feedback from the community meetings but it was good for people to be able to ask questions.

School board members thanked the work group present.

“I’m sure this was a personal and emotional work group,” Lewiston School Board President Staci Baldwin said.

She noted that no one remembers the last time it was done.

School board member John Rudolph suggested the board discuss how frequently the boundaries should be reviewed to avoid another lengthy gap between redrawing the lines. Eimers said the boundaries were also part of the district’s 10-year plan.

Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.