Bonneville School District 93 proposes boundary changes

With the recent passing of the Bonneville Joint School District 93 bond allowing a new middle school to be built, it calls for some boundary changes. The district held a work session on Wednesday to talk about that.

Bonneville School District 93 has some big decisions to make in the next couple of weeks. Board members proposed two different boundary changes at the last board meeting.

Those two tentative changes? Moving a section of Iona Elementary school students to Tiebreaker Elementary. The other is moving about 80 students zoned in Woodland Hills Elementary to go to Hillview Elementary.

“You know we approach boundary changes very carefully,” said Scott Woolstenhulme, the District 93 Assistant Superintendent. “It’s something we do with a lot of careful thought and deliberation.”

Today’s work session was all about why the need for the possible changes and how they fit with the overall scheme of things.

“So today we had to talk about the steps we take when we do have schools that are overcrowded and those could include moving trailers that we have to the sites and we could provide more classroom space,” explained Woolstenhulme. “Another option is that when we do have some schools that aren’t experiencing growth and might even be losing students, so we could be moving students into those.”

Board members have worries with any possible change, especially with the growing neighborhoods and community.

“We really need to take into consideration long-term,” said Amy Landers, the Vice Chair of the D93 School Board. “Knowing that those neighborhoods are coming, that the decisions that we make today need to have the longest term possible for these kids to stay in the schools where they’re going to move to, so they’re not being bounced around every few years.”

“Does the boundary change make sense? Are these students going to a school where they’ll have friends in the neighborhood,” Woolstenhulme said.

Right now, these proposed boundary changes are still in the works, so nothing is set in stone. The only boundary change that’s been communicated to parents is the proposed Iona/Tiebreaker. So far the reaction has been mixed.

“Typically with boundary changes you have both,” said Woolstenhulme. “You have people that are excited and feel like yeah this is a great change and some that come with a lot of concerns and questions about it as well.”

The district will continue to plan the boundary changes over the next few weeks and hope to present more at the next board meeting. That next board meeting will be held April 11. If everything goes as planned, they will share more about the proposals with families, and have surveys for feedback. The district hopes to have a final decision in may, so students will know where they will be attending this fall.