Rosa Parks, Wilder Parents Weigh Boundary Adjustment Options

Parents got their first glimpse Thursday at three different temporary boundary scenarios presented by the Lake Washington School District (LWSD) to ease overcrowding at Rosa Parks Elementary in Redmond Ridge.

Each option moves a large number of current and future students from Rosa Parks to Woodinville's Wilder Elementary, which is currently under capacity and projected to continue to lose students in coming years. (Click here to see an overview of each scenario, or check out the attached maps.)

Which scenario do you like best? Tell us in the comments section.

LWSD spokeswoman Kathryn Reith said district officials began with 11 different locations for the temporary boundary but ended up with only three options that would leave both Rosa Parks and Wilder under capacity by 2015-2016. In 2016-2017, the district plans to either open a new school or implement a district-wide bound boundary adjustment.

The three final scenarios differ in the specific number of students affected and the location of the boundary. Dozens of parents came to Evergreen Middle School on Thursday evening to learn about each option and provide their feedback.

• Option A, Reith said, is focused on moving students who are located closest to Wilder Elementary and would involve shorter bus rides than the other two scenarios. It would affect 239 current students and 54 projected students from new development. 
• Option B, compared to the other two scenarios, takes more students from future development. It moves all of Redmond Ridge East to Wilder, with the exception of neighborhoods along Eastridge Drive NE south of Sheridan Crescent NE, and would affect 187 current students and 117 projected students. 
• Option C is intended to make Rosa Parks walkable for all students, Reith said. It moves all of Redmond Ridge East except the Deveron neighborhood to Wilder and impacts 201 current students and 112 students from new development. (Reith said the reboundary committee opted against a straight divide between Redmond Ridge and Redmond Ridge East because that scenario would eventually put Wilder over capacity.) 

In all three scenarios, a "grandfathering" option will be available to families with students who are currently in fourth grade. These families would be able to keep all of their children at Rosa Parks for one year, while their fifth-grader finishes elementary school. They could also opt to keep the fifth-grade student at Rosa Parks and immediately move any younger siblings to Wilder, Reither said. 

Rosa Parks parent Olga Baos lives in the Deveron neighborhood and said she has a strong preference for Option A and C, both of which would keep her son, a kindergartener, at Rosa Parks. Baos said her family moved to Deveron from Redmond Ridge in May and chose the neighborhood specifically because it feeds into Rosa Parks.

Baos said sending her son to Wilder next year would be an uncomfortable change.

"It's farther away from us, (and) I don't know the school much," she said.

Parents at both Rosa Parks and Wilder have until Dec. 9 to submit a feedback form on the three scenarios. The forms can be filled out online or printed and returned in person to the family's home school.

After evaluating parent feedback, a reboundary committee will make a recommendation to Superintendent Traci Pierce, who will then send her own proposal to the LWSD school board. The board is expected to vote on the matter before kindergarten registration begins in February, Reith said.

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Previous coverage:

Temporary Boundary Adjustment Will Move Some Students to Rosa Parks Next Year

District Officials Present Two Options for Easing Overcrowding at Rosa Parks

Parents Express Concern About Overcrowding at Rosa Parks Elementary

Guest Opinion: Swift Action Needed to Help Kids at Bursting Redmond School