The Ridgefield School District made adjustments to the territorial boundaries at its two elementary schools to even out the student population in an effort to handle the district’s growth.
During its May 24 meeting, the RSD Board of Directors voted unanimously to approve a shift of boundaries for Union Ridge and South Ridge elementary schools for the 2022-2023 school year. With the boundary shift, the district estimates 132 students currently attending Union Ridge will move to South Ridge, which affects about 3.4% of the district’s overall population.
The boundary shift moves South Ridge’s territory north of its existing end to the northeast, mostly east of Interstate 5, though some territory near the interstate interchange to the west will be affected.
Current enrollment at the two elementary schools skews heavily to Union Ridge, leading to a shift to address overcrowding. The current enrollment at Union Ridge is at 901 students, while there are 633 students at South Ridge. The shift will balance out populations to 769 at Union Ridge and 765 at South Ridge, based on district enrollment projections.
The location for the shift was determined by a number of factors intended to keep the impacts to the district’s operations minimal. The school district worked to come up with a plan with KWRL Transportation, which provides busing services for the district, RSD Communications Director Joe Vajgrt said.
Apart from moving the boundary to balance out student populations, Vajgrt said the district took into account the grade levels of current students so one grade level isn’t impacted more than another.
Transportation impacts were another factor. The increases in mileage and effects on timing for bus drivers were taken into account, Vajgrt said. With an ongoing shortage in drivers, RSD didn’t want to put more of the burden on KWRL, he said.
The change comes as the district continues to deal with population growth. The district has previously sought construction bonds in order to build a new elementary school and an expansion at the high school. In April, the bond failed for a fifth time, coming only 73 votes shy of the required 60% supermajority needed to pass.
Unlike some other districts, Ridgefield’s student population has seen relatively steady growth in recent years. Apart from a likely COVID-19 pandemic-related dip in enrollment for the 2020-2021 school year, the district has seen its population grow by roughly 1,000 students since 2017, the year the last bond was approved by voters, according to the Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction.
Vajgrt said basic planning on how to handle the district’s population growth started in February after the bond experienced its first of two failures this year.
“When it became clear that (new school construction) wasn’t going to be in the cards for the district, that’s really when the planning hit high gear,” Vajgrt said.Vajgrt noted the boundary shift also took into account where a new elementary school would be built, so should it be complete, students moving from Union Ridge to South Ridge would go to the new school and not revert back to Union Ridge.
The district sent out emails to every family in the district about the changes, and another to those directly affected by the boundary shift, Vajgrt said. RSD also hosted a “welcome night” at South Ridge on Monday for students who will switch schools next year.
In order for the boundary shift to be effective, the district is not allowing new transfers from one elementary school to another. Apart from the potential imbalance, Vajgrt noted the amount of transfers expected would likely lead to a large amount of paperwork to process for all of the transfers.
Students who have current transfers from one school to the other will have their shifts maintained, Vajgrt said. Any incoming kindergarteners will also be allowed to attend the same school as their older sibling if the family already has a transfer as well.
Additional changes
The boundary change is only one of the adaptations the district will implement next year. The board also approved adjusting school start and end times at its schools for its older students at Sunset Ridge, View Ridge and Ridgefield High School. Those schools will start their days five minutes earlier, with Sunset Ridge and View Ridge starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 2:30 p.m., and the high school starting at 7:55 a.m. and ending at 2:40 p.m.
Vajgrt said KWRL only needed a shift of five minutes to work with the district’s other changes, in part to allow for double runs for drivers transporting students to multiple schools.
“They (KWRL) are pretty confident that the five minutes will be more than enough,” Vajgrt said.
The buildings for older students in the district will also see changes as some special purpose space at both the intermediate grades campus and at the high school will be used as classroom space next year. At the intermediate campus for Sunset Ridge and View Ridge, the wrestling room will be set up to house three classroom spaces. At Ridgefield High School, the presentation room will be used as additional classroom space.
With the wrestling room converted into classroom space, practices for the sport districtwide will be moved to gyms, Vajgrt said. The high school’s presentation room used to hold district board meetings until the completion of the Ridgefield Administrative and Civic Center, currently serves as a common area for students.
Vajgrt said the conversions aren’t intended to be permanent shifts because there is potential for a bond to pass in the future.
Though not planned to be implemented yet, the district is also thinking about converting the intermediate campus’ “black box” theater to an additional classroom. Also under consideration is the potential to have some high school teachers switch to “cart-based instruction” though that hasn’t yet happened.
“It is important for teachers to have ownership of their classrooms and be able to make it their own space,” Vajgrt said, putting the switch to teachers with mobile carts further down the list than other changes.
Ridgefield’s adaptation to a growing population isn’t a new course of action, as evidenced in the district’s last bond to pass in 2017 which built the intermediate campus and expanded the high school.
“The common misconception is that the district is just wanting to build one school then turning around and asking for another one,” Vajgrt said.
The elementary school at the center of the previous five failed bond attempts was only part of the overall expansion plan for the district.
If the population continues to grow and no new buildings are constructed, the district may change its scheduling to split classes to early and later schedules. The district may also implement a year-round model staggering different cohorts with time off and time in school.
For now, the district will stick with shifting boundaries and open up more space in its current buildings to address an ever-increasing district population.
“This is definitely not a perfect solution. It’s just the reality of what we are facing with how many students we already have,” Vajgrt said.
