The comprehensive boundary review process aims to support balanced enrollment across our elementary and middle schools and provide developmentally-appropriate programming and services so we can ensure every student has what they need to learn and thrive.

• Currently, Centennial School District has imbalanced enrollment throughout elementary schools and the middle school in the district, leading to the initiation of this boundary review process.
• There is a need to balance K-5 enrollment within the physical capacity of the school buildings district-wide.
• There is development on the south end of the district that will impact enrollment.
• The boundary review process will inform and support the conversion to six K-5 grade elementary schools and two 6-8 grade middle schools with the conversion of Oliver Elementary to a middle school starting in the 2022–23 school year.

Centennial School District has partnered with FLO Analytics, a local consulting company that specializes in data-driven boundary review services. Together, population forecasts, enrollment projections and land use trends are analyzed and shared with a Boundary Review Committee and with the public. This is compiled in a baseline assessment report, as available on our website.

Starting in the fall of 2021, a Boundary Review Committee has met to analyze boundary options and receive community feedback on those options in the form of two open houses, one in November 2021 and another in January 2022. After the Boundary Review Open House #2 In January 2022, the Boundary Review Committee will once again review the community’s feedback, modify existing boundary scenarios, and determine a final recommendation for the Superintendent. The Superintendent will then vet the recommendation and bring forth a proposal to the School Board for approval on February 23, 2022. The District will implement the recommendation and communicate changes with staff and families.

The Boundary Review Committee is composed of parents from each school in the district, and meetings include school principals, district administrators, board liaisons, and FLO staff members.

The Committee’s parent representatives generate multiple boundary scenarios during committee meetings, and vote to determine Committee Consensus Scenarios that are presented publicly at the Boundary Review Open Houses. Parent and community input helps them refine consensus scenarios to ultimately produce a final recommendation to the Superintendent who, in turn, brings forward a recommendation to the School Board for approval.

The Boundary Review Committee is charged with working to identify, refine and review proposed updates to school attendance area boundaries to support long-term balanced enrollment and facility capacity utilization for the 2022-2023 school year and beyond. The committee engages with the public during open houses in the fall to receive feedback on their boundary scenarios. The Committee follows a set of guiding principles to develop boundary scenarios, which were developed in alignment with Board policy.

You can find the Boundary Review Committee member information and the guiding principles here: click here

Boundary Review Committee meeting materials and resources can be found here: click here.

Core values serve as guiding principles for the development of the Committee boundary scenarios. These are developed from Board Policy on School Attendance Areas (JC), insights gained from land use studies, student enrollment forecasting and community survey results.

The Board recognizes that there are multiple factors to consider in satisfying the objectives of a boundary adjustment. Those factors may include:

• Student body composition;
• Current and future availability of space at a school;
• Feeder patterns from elementary, middle to high school; and
• Neighborhood proximity and accessibility.

Additional criteria include:

• Take a District-wide perspective by considering growth trends and enrollment forecasts.
• Develop attendance area boundaries that work to balance school capacities across all schools.
• Minimize disruption and impacts to special programs or special populations (e.g., socio-economically impacted, English language learners, students receiving special education services).
• Consider transportation impacts, make efforts to maximize proximity to home/walkability and safety, and work toward limiting the amount of time students are on a bus.
• Viewing boundaries with an equity and demographic lens.

The Boundary Review Committee’s parent representatives produce a final recommendation (based on public input from two open houses) that they submit to the Superintendent who reviews the recommendation and brings it forward to the School Board for approval. The Board will consider the Superintendent’s recommendation and take action in February 2022.

The physical capacity of Oliver is almost half of the physical capacity of Centennial Middle School. Oliver’s physical capacity is 570, while Centennial Middle School is 1,000. Due to physical capacity limitations, it’s not possible to evenly distribute students into each middle school.

The external boundaries that define Centennial School District as a whole are not changing. What is changing is the boundaries within Centennial School District in order to balance enrollment at elementary and middle schools.

The comprehensive boundary review will not affect the high school.

At the start of the 2022-2023 school year.

The new attendance areas are expected to be assigned in March 2022 and will apply to the 2022-23 school year.

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.

Student enrollment determines school staffing allocations. The changes for next school year will result in some staffing adjustments, especially given that 6th grade will no longer be at the elementary level and Oliver will become a middle school.

The community has multiple opportunities to provide input to the comprehensive boundary review process. They include a survey (held in summer/fall 2021) and two open houses, one in November 2021 and one in January 2022. Open House information can be found on our website at this link.

Additionally, you can reach out to us via email at boundary@csd28j.org or call the district office at 503-760-7990.

You can reach out to us via email at boundary@csd28j.org or call the district office at 503-760-7990.