Columbia School Board votes to adopt new boundaries beginning 2014-2015
The Columbia School board voted Monday night 8-2 to change the boundaries to fix an overcrowding problem at Mill Creek Elementary.
An estimated 100 students at Mill Creek will go to either Ulysses S. Grant, Russell Boulevard or Mary Paxton Keeley Elementary next school year.
The board said this will fix overcrowding issues until a new elementary school opens in south Columbia in 2016.
Those who are upcoming fifth-graders will have the option to stay at Mill Creek Elementary.
The board will discuss transportation options, a possible sibling-rule and open transfers at its meeting next month.
Some member of the public were opposed to the boundary changes and said it’s not fair to kids to move them from the school where they’re already established.
But Superintendent Chris Belcher said the overcrowding problem can’t be pushed aside any longer.
“We’re as close we can get to good on this,” Belcher told ABC 17 News. “We’ve made decisions, they’re logical, they’re based on roads and assignments. They’re based on the understanding that in two years, we’re going to open a new school.”
The board also unanimously approved a $50 million bond issue that will appear on the April ballot. $28.6 million would go toward a new east elementary school.
