New boundaries set for Kennewick elementary, middle schools

The Kennewick School Board has decided how to shuffle neighborhoods among its elementary and middle schools and voted Wednesday on new attendance boundaries for next school year.

The adopted boundaries were developed after parent comments pushed district administrators to revisit initial attendance boundary lines.

The adjustments were better accepted but administrators said they still anticipate some families will ask to stay at their current schools instead of changing schools.

School officials contend the latest plan creates long-lasting boundaries that have natural neighborhood fits.

“We got a lot of positive responses,” said Assistant Superintendent Ron Williamson about the middle school boundaries.

The district plans to open its 15th elementary school and fifth middle school next fall, both near the Southridge area. And in a couple years, another elementary is planned for west Kennewick.

The addition of the new schools is driving the first large-scale shift in attendance boundaries since Cottonwood Elementary School opened in Badger Canyon in 2010.

The changes will primarily affect schools serving southern and western neighborhoods.

Some of the concerns came from families living along Leslie Road who worried about overly long bus rides for their children.

Other middle school parents said they wanted more natural boundaries, such as major roads, between the schools. There also were issues with demographics, namely a likely increase in low-income students attending Highlands Middle School.

That sent administrators back to the maps, and they developed the final options approved by the board.

In those, the new elementary school will take students living in Canyon Lakes and south of Creekstone Drive. That includes an unpopulated area on the south flank of Thompson Hill, which is expected to see new housing developments.

Cascade, Lincoln, Ridgeview and Cottonwood elementaries were among the schools with the most boundaries changes.

Middle school boundaries, which previously were set up on a north to south inclination to improve socioeconomic diversity in each school, will now be neighborhood-oriented.

The new middle school will serve students south of 10th Avenue and west of Ely Street, with the exception of a strip between Columbia Center Boulevard and Edison Street.

Desert Hills Middle School will receive students west of Columbia Center Boulevard while Highlands will be bound by the Columbia River, Edison Street, 10th Avenue and Rainier Street.

Horse Heaven Hills Middle School’s boundary will be east of Ely and south of 21st Avenue, though it also will include students living east of Gum Street.

Park Middle School will serve the downtown core.

New boundary maps for elementary and middle schools can be found here.

Only two people commented during the board meeting, including a woman who said she was glad the district used enrollment projections instead of current numbers to determine the lines, meaning they shouldn’t have to adjust too much with growth.

A Kennewick High School teacher who has children in middle school was concerned about how the middle schools would affect the demographic mix at the high schools. He noted that Kennewick High currently has the most low-income and minority students of any other high school in the district.

Superintendent Dave Bond said high school attendance areas were not part of the boundary discussions and weren’t affected by the changes at the middle schools.

Board member Ron Mabry requested that the board take a look at the high school boundaries soon, and administrators suggested it could be a topic at the board’s January retreat.

District officials plan to mail parents a letter about the boundary changes.

Parents who still want to request that their child stay at their current school must submit a form between Dec. 1 and Jan. 29.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 8:01 PM with the headline "New boundaries set for Kennewick elementary, middle schools."