The D 49 School District Board of Education met Sept. 13. Board member Anna Bartha was absent with prior notice.The board approved the following action items:
- Amendment to the contract with Nunn Construction Inc. to extend the sewer line from the Vista Ridge High School site to existing terminus locations at the adjacent property in the amount of $44,747. The sewer line had been dropped about 164 linear feet short of the proper location. Jim Walsh, D 49’s construction manager, said the district is negotiating with Pulte Homes for reimbursement for this expense.
- Amendment to the contract with Nunn Construction to complete the second floor of the Falcon Community Builders for Classrooms wing at Vista Ridge High School in the amount of $999,000. The additional floor will increase the school’s capacity from 900 to 1,200 students.
- Amendment to the district’s contract with Nunn Construction in the amount of $67,991.03 to fund changes in response to field conditions or corrections in design discovered during construction of the Vista Ridge High School.
- Amendment to the district’s contract with GE Johnson in the amount of $105,858 to fund changes required during the construction of the new Falcon High School.
- C.C.S. Presentation Systems as the audio-visual vendor for the 2007-2008 fiscal year
- Dell Marketing LP as the information technology systems vendor for the 2007-2008 fiscal year.
- The board of education 2008 meeting calendar. Meetings will continue to be held the second Thursday of each month. Work sessions will continue to be held on the fourth Wednesday of each month, except for July and December, which will not have work sessions.
- Mutual Donor Agreement, which will allow the district to receive donations from builders directly.
- The new instructional materials policy (the NFH will report on the details of the policy in the Oct. 20 issue)
The decision on media server equipment vendor was delayed in order to study the bids that have been received.
Enrollment updateAs of Sept. 7, the district has an enrollment of 11,372 students, an increase of 368 students over the 2006-2007 school year, or 3.34 percent. Falcon High School had the biggest numeric increase: 135 students or 12.1 percent. Falcon Middle School had the biggest percentage increase: 14.5 per cent or 75 students.
D 49 high school attendance areasHenry Reitwiesner, the district’s director of planning and construction, led a discussion on how to reduce the size of the Sand Creek High School attendance area and create a new attendance area for Vista Ridge High School, which is scheduled for completion in July.The district’s long-range planning committee demographic and boundary subcommittee, building accountability assessment committee, staff members and parents formed a boundary task force and have been using the following guidelines to relieve overcrowding at Sand Creek High School:
- Get Sand Creek off the two-track schedule
- Keep families together
- Utilize the increased capacity at Vista Ridge High School
- Avoid separating middle school students when they get to high school
- Minimize transportation costs
- Consider athletic programs
Reitwiesner presented three maps identified by name as Orange, Red and Gold.On the Orange map, N. Carefree Circle forms the boundary between the Vista Ridge High School attendance area on the north and the Sand Creek High School attendance area on the south.On the Red map, Barnes Road forms the boundary, but a small portion south of Barnes Road along the west side of Peterson Road is in the Vista Ridge High School attendance area.On the Gold map, Barnes Road and Stetson Hills Boulevard form boundaries, with the western third of the land between the two streets in the Vista Ridge High School attendance area and the eastern two-thirds in the Sand Creek High School attendance area.With respect to the Falcon High School attendance area, the Red and Gold maps are the same: Students living in the area bounded by Mustang Road and Brule Road and students living in the area bounded by MarkSheffel Road, Rancho Bernardo Road, La Costa Road and Tamlin Road would go to Falcon High School. On the Orange map, students living in these areas would go to the Vista Ridge High School. On all maps, students living east of these areas would go to Falcon High School.The task force considered scenarios that would send grades 9-10 or 9-12 to Vista Ridge High School for each proposed map. They also considered sending eighth graders from Sky View Middle School to Vista Ridge High School to relieve overcrowding at the middle school.Board president Dave Martin said he is not comfortable with sending eighth graders to a high school and that he prefers to make a decision on high school attendance boundaries and then look at ways to relieve overcrowding at Sky View Middle School.Board vice president Dave Stark said the district needs to figure out how it will implement a choice program for students who want to attend special programs, such as the International Baccalaureate program, outside their high school attendance area. A choice program will help even out enrollment among the schools, Stark said.The boundary task force posted an online survey at the D 49 Web site and held four public meetings at Sky View Middle School and the Falcon and Sand Creek high schools the last two weeks of September.Reitwiesener said he expects the final decision to be made in October.The next board meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at the D 49 administrative offices at 10850 E. Woodmen Road.
