Spokane students affected by school boundary changes will be given choice to stay

Some students affected by recent boundary changes at Spokane Public Schools will be able to stay at their current schools as long as they wish, the school board has decided.

Part of a series of policy revisions adopted Wednesday night, the new rules affect almost 700 students who were “inordinately impacted” by the changes approved last summer.

Many of those students reside in the River Run neighborhood near the Spokane River. Currently attending Hutton Elementary, Sacajawea and then Lewis and Clark High School, they will eventually be assigned to North Side schools.

That means that before next fall, students at Hutton will be moved to Finch Elementary. However, Wednesday’s decision gives these students and some others priority in the district’s Choice Transfer Process.

Those students will be eligible to request Priority Choice Assignment to their current (2021-22 school year) elementary or middle school, as well as the middle school in what is called their “current feeder pattern,” through the completion of eighth grade.

The district has defined “Priority Choice Assignment” as the ability for students from neighborhoods affected by school boundary changes to choose their current school (or current school feeder pattern).

During the 2022-23 school year, on the school district’s north side and the 2023-24 school year on the school district’s south side, attendance boundaries will be adjusted at all three school levels: elementary, middle and high.

The shifts were deemed necessary because of the addition of three new middle schools and the shifting of sixth-graders to middle schools.

The replacement buildings for Glover and Shaw middle schools are complete. Two more North Side middle schools, Pauline Flett and Denny Yasuhara, will be finished next fall.

Sacajawea and Carla Peperzak middle schools are expected to be completed a year later.

When school boundaries are changed, rising fifth-, eighth- and 10th- through 12th-grade students can elect to stay at their current school if their school attendance boundary is changed to a different school attendance area.

All other students whose have school boundaries changed must attend the school in the new attendance area or request a Choice Transfer to their previously assigned school, if desired.

In a few days, the district is expected to finalize the identification of students affected by the boundary changes.

These students and families will be notified by the school district of their eligibility for Extended Legacy and/or Priority Choice status prior to the opening of the Choice Transfer application process.