Board Approves Committee's Recommendation

On Wednesday, February 23, 2022, the Boundary Review Committee’s Recommendation was brought forward to the Centennial School Board for consideration and the Board approved. The new boundary map with adjustments in school attendance areas will take effect starting in the 2022-23 school year.

I’d like to acknowledge the Boundary Review Committee, which included parent representatives from every school in the district. The Committee has been integral in developing over 30 boundary scenarios during the seven (7) committee meetings, bringing scenario maps to the community open houses for feedback, and putting forward a final recommendation that incorporates the feedback from our community and follows Guiding Principles. 

Two parent representatives along with the District's Boundary consultant, FLO Analytics, joined in the presentation on February 23, 2022, and provided valuable insight into the process.  Presenters shared the following comments:

• “I feel like as a Committee we were able to listen to and discuss feedback that we received about potential change areas and what to do with those changes. As parents on the Committee, we were able to get to know each other, know parents from other schools, see each other’s perspectives and understand why to consider certain changes and be careful about the decisions we were making. We received a lot of positive feedback throughout the process and we believe that people felt heard throughout the process.”

• “It gave me a lot of confidence and comfort that regardless of where the [boundary] lines fell for our family, just seeing the caliber of the professionals in the District, and being willing to have the conversations around these values, was really reassuring and was a great experience for me as a parent.”

• From FLO Analytics' perspective, there was a high level of community engagement for a district of Centennial’s size including Open House participation rates, visits to the designated boundary review webpage, and the amount of positive feedback received.

As you may recall, the purpose of the Comprehensive Boundary Review is to address:

• Imbalanced enrollment throughout elementary schools and the middle school in the district;
• The need to balance K-5 enrollment within the physical capacity of the school buildings district-wide;
• Development on the south end of the district impacting enrollment; and
• Informing and supporting the conversion to six (6) K-5 elementary schools and two (2) 6-8 middle schools with the conversion of Oliver Elementary to a middle school, starting in the 2022-23 school year.

The Comprehensive Boundary Review has been a nine-month process, beginning in May 2021 with initial project planning with district leadership, developing and administering community feedback surveys to inform the process from August to September of 2021, community open houses, and for the boundary committee process from October 2021 to this January, all leading to the recommendation presentation to the Board on February 23, 2022.  

The District partnered with FLO Analytics, a local consulting company that specializes in data-driven boundary review services, that helped facilitate the Committee work and provide multiple data sources such as population forecasts, enrollment projections, and land-use trends to inform this work. Their insight and expertise guiding us throughout the process was invaluable.

Community engagement has been a critical component and multiple methods were utilized to reach every facet of our community: monthly articles in the Superintendent’s Update, the boundary review webpage, automated messaging, regular social media posts, the Fall 2021 Report to the Community, a community survey, communications from the school level, and the two Open Houses that were held to vet the boundary review committee’s consensus scenario. 

Many thanks to the dedicated committee members and district leaders, which includes parent representatives, school principals, district administrators, and other staff supporting the process.  I want to also offer appreciation to the Centennial community including our staff for their feedback through our Open Houses and surveys.

Click here to review the Board Meeting presentation.

Next steps:

• Families impacted by the boundary change will be notified and supported. We are focusing on providing transitional support in orienting students to their new school for next year. That support includes some of the resources noted below. If parents want their child to stay at their current school into next year, they can make a request through the existing intra-district transfer process, recognizing that not all requests may be approved due to limited capacity.

• Resources will be developed for each elementary and middle school to introduce our students and families to the school. This includes videos, a school profile, and an updated boundary review map.

• The Centennial Middle School Principal and Oliver's Principal will be scheduling time to present to current 5th and 6th grade students and families to provide information about preparing for middle school.

• The District’s Instructional Technology Center (ITC) is supporting the enrollment/registration updates to reflect the attendance areas for the 2022-23 school year.

Resources: Click here for the Committee Recommendation Map and Summary Stats

January 21, 2022

Español (Spanish) translation

русский язык (Russian) translation

Boundary Review Open House #2 Results and Next Steps

From January 9-16, 2022, staff, parents, and community members had an opportunity to provide feedback to Committee Consensus Scenario #2 as part of the Comprehensive Boundary Review. Participants had the option to attend a virtual session via Zoom or watch a video, and then provide input through a feedback form.

Interpretation was offered in Spanish, Arabic, Burmese, and Somali. Videos and feedback forms were offered in English, Spanish, and Russian. Parents who needed assistance with technology had the opportunity to contact the District Office for support as needed.
Here are the results of the feedback and next steps.

Survey Results
We heard from 50 participants representing 78% parents, 18% staff, and 4% other. Feedback came from all elementary schools, Centennial Middle School, Centennial High School, and Centennial Virtual Academy. Of those that responded through the feedback form, 82% watched the online video only; 14% attended the virtual open house; and 4% watched the online video and attended the virtual open house.
Feedback categories were as follows:

• 44% positive; no major concerns;
• 30% implementation/policy or district related comments/questions;
• 16% equity;
• 4% data related questions;
• 4% transportation/walkability; and
• 2% possible action items.

We received positive feedback from participants who appreciated the hard work, transparency, and listening to the community. 

Thank you to all who participated! 

Boundary Review Committee Meets, Make Recommendation to Superintendent

On Tuesday, January 18, 2022, the Boundary Review Committee met to review feedback from Open House #2. 

Parent committee members were requested to provide their thoughts on a small adjustment to Committee Consensus Scenario #2 (between Pleasant Valley Elementary School – PVES and Butler Creek Elementary School - BCES) that affected three current households and would better align with proximal neighborhoods and district transportation routes. There was consensus by parent representatives that this was an appropriate adjustment.

Committee Consensus Scenario #3 was presented to Superintendent Owens as the Committee’s recommendation for new boundaries for Centennial SD for fall 2022. The Committee then developed a list of characteristics for this scenario showing how it met various Board-directed new boundary guiding principles as well as opportunities for district support of this recommendation’s implementation next fall.

THANK YOU to the Boundary Review Committee members, particularly the parents who volunteered their time and energy to the process! For a list of Committee members, visit: this page. For meeting materials and resource information, visit: this page.

Committee Recommendation

The Superintendent is responsible for evaluating the Committee’s recommendation and bringing a proposal forward to the Centennial School District Board of Directors on Wednesday, February 23, 2022.

The interactive webmap is now updated with the Committee Recommendation boundary map. You can find it here: https://csd28j.org/16454_3.  

What Happens After the Boundary Review

New attendance areas are expected to be assigned in March 2022 and will apply to the 2022-23 school year. Centennial School District is developing a transition plan and will communicate the plan with staff, students, and families.

We will keep our families informed of changes related to school enrollment transitions and develop supports to assist our students and families to prepare for the 2022-23 school year.

For More Information

Visit https://csd28j.org/16454_3, our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page, email boundary@csd28j.org, or call the District Office at 503-760-7990.