District 90 pushes back decision on boundaries until October

Acting on the recommendation of O'Fallon School District 90's administration and a committee of citizen volunteers, staff and school board members, there will be no boundary changes forthcoming in the district this fall.

The Boundary Committee is continuing to study O'Fallon District 90 boundaries, and is expected to make its recommendation to the school board in October, Superintendent Carrie Hruby said.

The Boundary Commitee has been meeting since early January, and was expected to report back to the school board before its April meeting.

Hruby said the Boundary Committee needs additional time before it can make a formal recommendation to the school board.

"It is a very involved process," she said.

The district had to transfer 50 students to another building after their grade level had an enrollment freeze this year.

In the meantime, the District 90 will keep boundaries as they are now for the 2016-17 school year.

The district will have to continue freezing grades and transferring students once the district has an enrollment cap this fall, Hruby said.

The Boundary Committee will be considering two study options:

▪ Redrawing the boundaries for each school to accommodate recent and future growth of the community.

▪ Moving to an attendance center approach which would change the grade housed at each building.

This does not mean that students would move to a different school every year, Hruby said.

Rather, the students might attend one grade school for grades K-3, and grades 4-5 would be at another school in the district.

There are now 3,585 students enrolled in Distrrict 90, which includes two junior high schools, Carriel and Fulton; five elementary schools, Evans, Hinchcliffe, Kampmeyer, Moye and Schaefer; and, one pre-K early learning center.

Seven years ago, the district reviewed and modified boundaries for each school in the district. At that time, it was determined that, given O’Fallon’s growth, the boundary lines should be revisited in five years.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 2:41 PM with the headline "District 90 pushes back decision on boundaries until October."