KENNEWICK -- Elementary students in the Creekstone neighborhood off West 10th Avenue in Kennewick will go to Ridge View Elementary next year under revised boundaries approved by the Kennewick School Board on Wednesday night.

Those families will have the option of requesting a transfer to Lincoln Elementary, where children in the neighborhood go this year under current boundaries.

The decision by the board means the district's new elementary school boundaries are final after months of planning and discussion.

The board had approved most of the changes to the boundaries -- which are needed because the new Cottonwood Elementary is opening in the Badger Canyon area this fall -- at a meeting earlier this month. But some Creekstone parents wanted to stay in Lincoln's boundary and asked the board to reconsider that piece of the plan.

Board members Wednesday reviewed some alternative scenarios prepared by staff -- including grandfathering in current Creekstone residents to Lincoln's boundary and moving other neighborhoods to accommodate Creekstone staying at Lincoln -- but ultimately voted 3-2 to follow the staff's recommendation to move Creekstone to Ridge View.

Staff said that keeping Creekstone students at Lincoln would cause overcrowding at the school and not leave room for growth.

"I'm concerned (the other options) would set us up for an overcrowding situation," said board President Dawn Adams, one of the three "yes" votes. The others were Lynn Fielding and Heather Kintzley.

Board members Wendy London and Kathy White voted against and instead supported allowing current Creekstone residents to be grandfathered into Lincoln's boundary. That option was supported by Creekstone parents who attended the meeting and spoke to the board.

Overall, the boundary changes will have the most impact on the west side of the district. Under the changes, students living in the Rancho Reata and Badger Canyon areas will go to the new school. Right now, Rancho Reata students go to Sunset View Elementary and Badger Canyon students go to Ridge View.

The boundary changes then will be smaller moving east across the district, with some boundaries -- such as those for Edison and Westgate -- virtually unchanged.

Staff worked on the new boundaries for months and held a series of community meetings to gather parent feedback.

The goals included keeping neighborhoods as intact as possible and keeping all schools from 450 to 550 students, Greg Fancher, assistant superintendent of elementary education, has said.

He said revising boundaries is always difficult because students and families are attached to and invested in their schools and don't want to move. The district tried to minimize the number of students who have to move under the changes, he said.

A handful of Creekstone parents attended Wednesday's meeting, and some attended the meeting earlier this month.

Stephen Callister, who has two children in elementary school this year and two others who are younger, said he was disappointed by the board's decision. Part of the reason his family moved to Creekstone was to be in Lincoln's boundary, he said.

Getting to Ridge View would require crossing the busy South Kellogg Street, he said.

Callister said he sent a request to the district asking that his children be allowed to stay at Lincoln next year.

Fancher told the board that the district should be able to accommodate those kinds of requests for Creekstone families. About 38 kids in the neighborhood currently go to Lincoln, and so far the district has received requests for 15 of those students to stay at that school next year.

Other Creekstone parents have said they're OK with going to Ridge View, Fancher said.

The Cottonwood school is being paid for with money from a $68 million bond voters approved last year, which is also covering the remodel of several aging elementary schools in the district.

Also Wednesday:

-- The board agreed to extend the Mid-Columbia Partnership from being a K-8 program to include high school. The program supports home school students and their families.

-- Sara Schilling: 509-582-1402; sschilling@tricityherald.com