Solution: Please recommend Map Submittal #3 to Beaverton School Board for the new elementary school boundaries in Bethany.

Bethany is a community of families invested in their children’s education, positive growth and emotional development. We live in neighborhoods that have founded Jacob Wismer and Springville K-8 schools in the Beaverton School District. Our children and parents have been driving excellence at these schools in academics, arts, science and technology. We have nurtured clubs and school affiliated organizations with great deal of love and commitment to excellence. Our children go to school with friends who are neighbors, have joined Cub Scouts assisted by their friend’s parents, and engage in door-to-door fundraisers for their favorite causes in their neighborhoods. The children and parents have long been invested in these schools as multiple siblings attended the same elementary schools. Great neighborhoods such as Bethany Meadows, Morgan Run, Pirate Park, Arbor View, Wismer Ridge have been at the center of a decade long and continuing success story. It is not an exaggeration to say that our children have safest routes to school- they walk, bike on a trail, or commute by bus. Safety of these established routes is excellent investment built together by Beaverton School District, THRPD and our families.

Because of the impeccable reputation of our schools, families from near and far make Bethany home. Diverse communities have formed that value education and support the neighborhood schools our children attend. The demand for housing in this area as finally been met with a housing boom surrounding neighborhoods that have been the anchor of Bethany for over 20 years. Unprecedented growth is occurring, especially on the north side commonly referred to as “North Bethany”. Population growth north of Springville Road continues to defy all projections and poses a formidable challenge to our schools. Springville K-8 has been overcrowded and Jacob Wismer has been operating at design capacity or slightly over the past five years. To accommodate the needs of Bethany and North Bethany families and children, a new elementary school was desperately needed. Beaverton School District is now undertaking the challenging task of redefining elementary school boundaries to ensure our children can go to neighborhood elementary schools along safe streets and trails. Communities have participated enthusiastically and provided excellent history, data and suggestions to the boundary change process committee of volunteers. Based on all the discussions, public feedback and future needs, we believe the option titled Map Submittal #3 is the most equitable, optimal solution that accommodate all the stakeholders for the immediate future and with long range planning in mind as well. Detailed explanations of the options to change the elementary school boundaries are included below for your consideration.

Map Submittal #3 is the boundary map that connects established neighborhoods to their neighborhood schools, provides continuity of educational programming and meets BSD policies for this boundary adjustment.

• Least disruptive option: Leaves majority of students at Springville K-8, while moving developing North Bethany neighborhoods to Kaiser.  Of the founding and established neighborhoods (Jacob Wismer boundary, Pirate Park, and Arbor Oaks) there are only 107 children affected.  The rest of the students will come from projected growth in the next 9 months, as well as the new developments that have been built in the last year.  

• Relieves Springville K-8 and keeps Jacob Wismer with sustainable boundaries, which projections show a drop in attendance.   When Kaiser overcrowds, it provides minor boundary adjustments at a later time that will relieve Kaiser and not require a new school is built.  And if a new school is required, it provides the easiest adjustment of neighborhoods.  
• Only map option that provides an opportunity for all neighborhoods to have full or mostly safe routes to school.  In the future when paths are built out and the North Bethany community plan is complete, much of Abbey Creek will have safe walk routes to Kaiser school. The northern Pirate Park regions will also be able to walk to Springville K-8 with an addition of a stoplight at Joss and Springville Rd.
• Keeps all current neighborhoods aligned, and assigns new neighborhoods to the new school to build and create their own community, as our neighborhood schools are the central hub of our communities.

We urge you strongly to consider these merits of Map Submittal #3 and recommend it to Beaverton school board.  

 

Map Submittal #2 is the boundary map recommended for your consideration by the Elementary Boundary Committee. It attempts to make all neighborhoods happy, but doesn't make the tough decisions necessary. It will ultimately overcrowd the new elementary school rapidly with students arriving from new construction surrounding the school, as well as from the large, already developed Pirate Park neighborhood.

• It is disruptive to Springville K-8 community and all of the Pirate Park Community.  It proposes to move the Pirate Park neighborhoods that have been moved for all of the new school openings in Bethany. Starting at Findley in 1997, to Jacob Wismer 2001, to Springville 2008 and now proposed Kaiser 2017. This community makes up over 70% of the original Springville neighborhoods. Additionally, there is a low income apartment community in Bethany (along Laidlaw), of which there has been no mention of consideration for the disruption of these students with less ability to adjust to changes.
• The only community that would have safe routes to school is Abbey Creek, which is a small recently built community in North Bethany that is far closer to Kaiser than the Pirate Park neighborhood.  When the community is built out, the majority of Abbey Creek should also be able to walk to Kaiser. Kaiser could never be considered a neighborhood school for the Pirate Park Community. It is the community located the farthest away and down a dangerous road that will never provide safe walk routes to school. 
• There is only unity for a short time for Pirate Park under the Map 2 scenario. When Kaiser overcrowds, it will be split or likely reassigned to Springville or another school as it is again the farthest from Kaiser. The Pirate Park neighborhood founded Springville K-8 and should be anchored to it, instead of being moved each time a new school is opened in Bethany.

Map Submittal #1 contains numerous serious flaws, any one of which should be enough to remove it as an option but taken together make it a non-starter.

• Most disruptive option: Map Submittal #1 is by far the most disruptive of all the maps under consideration. Since the target opening enrollment for Kaiser Rd K-5 is approximately 500, it is unavoidable that around 500 students will be required to change schools to relieve the overcrowding at Springville K-8. Under this scenario however, a whopping 798 kids will be forced to change schools to achieve the same result. Forcing an additional 300 or so kids to change schools is unnecessary and unacceptable.

• Overcrowds Jacob Wismer: Jacob Wismer is currently at 94% of capacity, which according to BSD, is exactly within the desired range. Map Submittal #1 would add 89 students to Jacob Wismer, pushing them to 111% of capacity in the first year, with no significant reduction in subsequent years. This even pushes Jacob Wismer enrollment far beyond the capacity of the current portables. Alleviating overcrowding at Springville by overcrowding Jacob Wismer is nonsensical.

• No safe routes to school: An elementary school is much more than the place children go to attend classes. it is the center of their school community and the place kids go to play, socialize, and meet friends. Currently, Jacob Wismer is easily accessible from Arbor View using safe walking paths provided by THRPD. Children from the Pirate Park neighborhood cannot safety cross Bethany BLVD or Kaiser Rd due to the speed limit.

• Fails to keep any neighborhood unity: Parents in the Pirate Park neighborhoods have been vocal in their desire to keep their neighborhood unity intact, but Map Submittal #1 actually divides the Pirate Park neighborhoods into three areas attending three different schools. Map Submittal #1 also fails to maintain unity for Arbor View, neighborhood, an original founding neighborhood for Jacob Wismer whose neighborhood identity is woven into the fabric of the Jacob Wismer community.

Map submittal #1 was submitted at Meeting 4 by Sarah Beachy a Springville K-8 committee member. It was taken out of consideration before public comment because of its numerous flaws. It was the only map ever to change Jacob Wismer’s attendance boundary, as the various stakeholders and committee members sought to focus on relieving the crisis level overcrowding at Springville K-8. It was further confirmed at the December 1, 2016 that Map Submittal #1 was not in consideration. We humbly request you to eliminate Map Submittal #1 from any further consideration.

Furthermore, meetings to relieve overcrowding at Springville K-8 began in 2014. Jacob Wismer was never part of these meetings or discussed as part of the overcrowding solutions at Springville K-8. The solution given to Springville K-8 parents was the new Kaiser school would be opened a year earlier and that the middle school program would be relocated until the Kaiser school opened.

Additionally, it is important to consider the stability of Springville K-8 as the middle school is an options program. A​ well-established neighborhood with lower growth potential and families already invested is better suited to maintain this program. Springville K-8 was built as neighborhood school for the Pirate Park communities and Arbor Oaks. Moving over 70% of its original neighborhoods to the Kaiser school is not only detrimental to the students who have made an investment in the Expeditionary Learning (EL) program at Springville K-8, but also strips Springville of its community identity and greatly impacts the success of the school and of the middle school EL Options Program. The continuity of the Expeditionary Learning program is important for the Springville middle school’s success - and the overwhelming majority of students that have been in this program from the start of their school careers live in the Pirate Park community. This community not only deserves a neighborhood school, but also deserves to stay within the learning program that they have built from the start and hope to continue.

There are 4,000 homes being built north of Springville Road. The new elementary school opening should disrupt as few students from established neighborhoods as possible.  

As a collective group of Jacob Wismer and Springville K-8 parents and community members we would like to request in the strongest possible terms that Map Submittal #3 is given strong consideration due to the disruption Map Submittal #2 creates at Springville K-8.  It is not reasonable to move over 70% of the founding community at Springville K-8 to a school that is located the farthest away from their neighborhood. Current Springville K-8 programs, such as running club, cub scouts, as well as all but one of the PTO board members reside within the Pirate Park community and will leave Springville K-8 bereft of identity, programs and volunteers.  It also moves majority of the Springville 4th graders out to a new school, and then onto Stoller middle school, which cannot take such a large influx of students.  Kaiser is a North Bethany school, and should be filled by the community surrounding it. Map Submittal #3 is the only long term proposal that looks at communities as planners intended, with the schools, parks, and communities interspersed.  It is the only long term plan that does not require a major boundary adjustment at a later date. Finally, let’s not move whole communities unnecessarily.  Limiting the changes to the intended Springville K-8 boundaries, leaving current Jacob Wismer boundaries as they are, and encouraging the community of North Bethany to grow around Abbey Creek and the Kaiser school will accomplish these goals as envisioned in BSD policies.

We hope that you recommend the least disruptive option to our schools and children. Thank you for your judicious consideration.

- Parents of Jacob Wismer and Springville K-8 -


Maps and additional information can be found here: https://pirateparkcommunity.wordpress.com/