The Garden City Public Schools Boundary Committee met on Thursday, February 22 and went over data from the last meeting. The group looked at and participated in high-level discussion of the grade configuration options identified from the last meeting. The report that was presented to the committee can be found at https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1...
There were three options that the group looked at and discussed.
The first option was keeping the grade configuration as it currently is in the district (K-4, [K-6], 5-6, 7-8).
• This option has minimal impact to students
• Maintain 4 building transitions for students K-4 elementary schools
• Utilizes 11 elementary buildings, 2 intermediate buildings, and 2 middle school buildings
The second option was change to Kindergarten-6th grade model (K-6, 7-8).
• Maintains current Middle School programming
• Three schools are currently K-6 (no programming impact)
• Reduces number of transitions to 3
• Utilizes 13 elementary buildings and 2 middle school buildings
The third option was to change to a Kindergarten-5th grade model (K-5, 6-8).
• Changes the Middle School programming (adds 6th grade)
• All elementary schools would be impacted by either losing or adding a grade
• Utilizes 13 elementary buildings and 2 middle school buildings
The group utilized a SWOT analysis strategy – what are the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats of each option that was presented.
There was also discussion on what data/metric items should be used to decide which buildings are potentially repurposed if there are changes made to the grade configurations in the district. Some ideas looked at and discussed included:
• Size/capacity of facility?
• Current enrollment?
• Culture?
• Reputation?
• Historical significance?
• Financial impact?
• Transportation impact?
• My kids attend?
The committee consists of the district leadership team, principals, teachers, business/community partners, parents and representatives from the district’s department heads. More information can be found under the Boundary Study at https://www.gckschools.com/o/gcps/page/boundary-study.