News

The Boundary Task Force is continuing its discussion of the issues surrounding its most recent boundary proposal. The Task Force will not bring a recommendation to the School Board on Thursday, April 10 as originally planned in order to carefully consider the community feedback received in recent weeks. The Task Force may bring a proposal for School Board consideration at the Board's regular work session, April 24. The timeline will be announced just as soon as the Task Force completes its discussion and feels ready to move a proposal along to the Board.

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Background Information on Boundaries Task Force

May 6, 2008

Slight Change to Elementary Proposal

Click for high resolution map

The Boundaries Task Force made the following change to its elementary boundary proposal:            

• North of Highway 5 and west of Rolling Acres Rd. will remain at Victoria Elementary. Neighborhoods include Parkview Drive. and Park Drive.  

All other changes remain in the final proposal.

Revised Elementary Proposal - Until recently, it was planned that the district would be adding an additional elementary school to open in the fall of 2010 and that existing attendance boundaries, despite some crowding issues, could be sustained until that time. Recently revised enrollment projections, reflecting the economic slowdown and its effect on the housing market, has forced revision of that plan. It now seems obvious that the next elementary school will not open before 2013 or 2014 and the current boundaries cannot be sustained until that time.

The Boundary Task Force was charged with developing new elementary attendance areas that could be sustained for 4-5 years or until the next elementary becomes a reality. Following community feedback on the initial proposal for elementary boundary revisions, from a public meeting on March 3, the Task Force is now coming forward with a revised proposal. The revised version does move approximately 130 more elementary students than the original proposal, but the Task Force believes the changes allow the boundaries to be more sustained over a longer period of time. The total number of students impacted by the revised proposal is approximately 300.

The Task Force proposes no changes for East Union Elementary. Additional neighborhoods are affected by the second proposal. Please read carefully.

The revised proposal includes:

Students Currently at Bluff Creek Elementary
Moving to Chanhassen Elementary -

• Lake Susan Hills neighborhoods including those east of Audubon Road, north of Lyman Blvd., west of Powers Blvd., and south of Highway 5. This includes but is not limited to Heron Drive, Flamingo Drive, Lake Susan Hills Drive, Osprey, and Lake Drive.

Students Currently at Chanhassen Elementary
Moving to Bluff Creek Elementary

• Neighborhoods attached to Pioneer Trail east of Audubon Road. This includes but is not limited to Homestead Lane, Foxford Road, Meadowlark Lane, Deerbrook Drive, and Trails End.
• Neighborhoods and houses south of Lyman Blvd., east of Audubon Road, west of Powers Blvd., and north of Pioneer Trail. This includes the Liberty on Bluff Creek development.

Students Currently at Victoria Elementary
Moving to Bluff Creek Elementary -

• Neighborhoods north of Highway 5 and west of Highway 41, including Crimson Bay, Minnewashta, Rolling Acres, Zumbra, and Park Drive

Moving to Jonathan Elementary - Shady Oak Road and the Chevalle development

Houses on the south side of 82nd St. West, east of Bavaria Road in the City of Chaska

Students Currently at Clover Ridge Elementary
Moving to Jonathan Elementary -

• Isabella Parkway, Spy Glass and Georgeana
• Neighborhoods on Creek Road
• Neighborhoods and houses south of Engler, east of Guernsey Road, and future developments north of County Road 147. This does NOT include the current residents on County Road 147 and the Tupelo/Cascade neighborhood.

Students Currently at Chaska Elementary -
Moving to Jonathan Elementary -

• Prescott/Newberry neighborhood

Students Currently at Jonathan Elementary -
Moving to Bluff Creek Elementary -

• Neighborhoods north of Hazeltine Blvd., south of Lyman Blvd., east of Highway 41 and west of Audubon Road

Proposed Elementary Attendance Area Map - prior version [in pdf form]

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Middle School Proposal - The district's practice for transitioning from elementary school to middle school is to use "feeder schools." All of the kids who attend a particular elementary school go on to the same middle school together.

As we move from two middle schools to three, two of the current feeder schools must be reassigned to accommodate the additional middle school and projected growth. The task force has concluded that the least disruptive way to accomplish this is to reassign those two schools only and to allow all other schools to continue to feed into the same middle schools as they do today.

Due to the smaller capacity at Pioneer Ridge (700 students versus 1,000 each for Middle Schools East and West), the Task Force proposes that schools with two of the most stable elementary attendance areas in the district feed into Pioneer Ridge: Chanhassen Elementary and Chaska Elementary (shown in Orange on the Middle School Boundary Map). The Task Force proposes that Bluff Creek Elementary, Clover Ridge Elementary and East Union Elementary remain at Chaska Middle School West (shown in Yellow) and that Jonathan and Victoria Elementary remain at Chaska Middle School East (shown in Olive).

Because elementary and middle school boundaries are based on "neighborhood" boundaries and high school attendance areas are more closely related to city boundaries, each middle school will end up serving at least some students who will eventually go on to attend both high schools. The district sees this as a positive development, both in terms of academic achievement opportunities for kids and in the goal of minimizing divisions within our school community.

• Both middle schools, both staffs and both groups of students will have relationships with people in both high schools. This is consistent with the secondary program redesign creating a more seamless system for grades 6-12 and makes for equity across all schools and all program choices.
• As importantly, when students enter 9th grade, they will know students at the other school as well, and will have established friendships that will help to keep the inter-district rivalry a "friendly" and positive force in our community.

Middle School Attendance Area Proposal Map [in pdf form]

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High School Proposal - The Task Force proposal calls for the city limits of the city of Chaska to become the attendance area for Chaska High School. All of the remaining communities in the district, including Chanhassen, Carver, Victoria and all unincorporated township areas would attend Chanhassen High School. This proposal provides for equitable distribution of enrollment and also anticipates equitable distribution of know future growth areas. The goal is to create boundaries that can remain in place indefinitely. This is also an acknowledgement of the "flagship" nature of high schools and the fact that community identity and pride is often closely associated with such a school.

High School Attendance Area Proposal Map [in pdf form]