HUTCHINSON, Kan. – The USD 308 School Board Monday approved a contract with RSP & Associates to do the formal boundary study for USD 308’s elementary schools.
Since the district’s last major redraw of elementary school boundaries in 2010, the demographics of the community have continued to push elementary school-aged children north in the community. As a result, current boundaries put more students in schools farther north in the district and fewer in the southern schools.
A study by a community group earlier this year also recommended, and the board approved, a cost-cutting move to remove a track of classes from McCandless Elementary School. The move will require additional tweaks in the elementary boundaries.
Enrollment at seven of the district’s eight elementary schools is based on where a family lives. The eighth elementary school – Hutchinson Magnet School at Allen – accepts students from across the district on an application basis.
The study will cost $33,000, which will come from end-of-year money district administrators had been saving for this purpose.
The study will be completed during the winter of the 2015-16 school year. Any changes in boundaries will not go into effect until the 2016-17 school year.