The LPS Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC) has been meeting since the fall of 2018 to study school boundaries to better balance enrollment, provide boundaries for the new elementary schools to be built for the Ames neighborhood and the combined Highland and Franklin neighborhoods, and to address the growing transportation challenges resulting from increased traffic in the south metro area -- all in an effort to improve boundaries to best serve students and provide them with the best educational experience possible.

During more than 20 hours of meetings, the LRPC has considered 14 different elementary school boundary scenarios, six different middle school boundary scenarios, and four different high school boundary scenarios. As part of this process, the LRPC:

• Looked for logic and efficiency as new boundaries were considered
• Strived to keep neighborhoods together, recognizing that waterways and other obstacles make transportation more difficult
• Found boundary solutions for the new neighborhood school on the Ames campus 
• Found boundary solutions for the new neighborhood school on the current Franklin campus
• Strived to avoid wherever possible having to cross major north/south arterial roads, busing students past one school to attend another, and creating a smaller-than-optimal schools
• Considered current feeder patterns (elementary to middle to high)
• Considered school size and capacity, with and without out-of-district students
• Considered socio-economic balance
• Looked toward the future: what building replacements are happening with the current bond, and what buildings might be replaced in future bonds? How will boundaries be impacted?

Four stakeholder open houses are scheduled in January and February 2020, where attendees can drop in any time during a two-hour open house to learn about each scenario, ask questions of LRPC members, give feedback and take an exit survey, which provides another opportunity for feedback:

Tuesday, January 28, 2020
4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Goddard Middle School

Monday, February 3, 2020
5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Powell Middle School

Wednesday, February 12, 2020
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Newton Middle School

Thursday, February 20, 2020
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Euclid Middle School

All four open houses will provide attendees with the same opportunities to interact with members of the Long Range Planning Committee, learn about the boundary options, ask questions, and provide feedback. Choose a date, time, and location that works best for you!

What’s next?

The LRPC will provide an update to the Board of Education later this spring. The Board is tentatively scheduled to make decisions about the boundaries by the fall of 2020, and approved new boundaries would likely take effect in the fall of 2021. 

Additional information about the Districtwide Boundary Study is available on the LPS district website at Boundary Study.