Redistricting the entire Park Hill school district is indeed a large challenge. The committees were given a very short time frame with very little technological support to redraw all of the district lines (colored pencils and maps). In 2012 the board took 6 months to develop the new lines.
All four scenarios advanced by the committee have resulted in a large imbalance in SES, particularly affecting two schools; Southeast and Line Creek. The scenarios also failed to take into account school size, which has resulted in some schools being over capacity while others are significantly under their capacity.
Additionally, the scenarios failed to take into account actual distance to schools as required by travel by only using "as the crow flies" measurements. There are also individual neighborhoods in many scenarios that were singled out from their school at transition; i.e. Montebella moving to Lakeview as opposed to Walden with the rest of Southeast.
Park Hill is an amazing school district, with the benefit of being able to grow to support its children. Redistricting so that there is a balance between schools will benefit EVERY SINGLE student and employee in Park Hill. We owe it to our children to get this right. We are requesting more time be taken to evaluate and design new scenarios that provide the balance we all deserve.
Park Hill can do better, we can do better. Lets take our time and get it right!
