Centennial School District 28j

Board Approved Committee 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 took effect in the 2022-23 school year.

We appreciate the Boundary Review Committee, who included parent representatives from every school in the district. The Committee was  integral in developing over 30 boundary scenarios during their seven (7) committee meetings, bringing scenario maps to the community open houses for feedback, and putting forward a final recommendation that incorporated 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.

The purpose of the Comprehensive Boundary Review was 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 was a nine-month process, beginning 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, led to the recommendation presentation to the Board on February 23, 2022.

Many thanks to the dedicated committee members and district leaders, which included parent representatives, school principals, district administrators, and other staff supporting the process. Much 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.

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. 

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

What Happened After the Boundary Review

New attendance were assigned in March 2022 and applied to the 2022-23 school year. Centennial School District developed a transition plan and communicated the plan with staff, students, and families.