The Columbia School Board (CPS) decided on Phase 1 Attendance Area Changes Wednesday night, voting to implement option 1 in the 2025-2026 school year, in an attempt to address recent growth in Columbia schools.
At the special session, CPS considered three options for Phase 1 of the plan, which only impacts elementary school students and seeks to bring more students to Russell Boulevard Elementary School (RBES). The move comes after after a new wing was added to RBES.
According to CPS, option 1 outlines adding 59 students to RBES, which will all be moved from Fairview Elementary School. In a 5-1 decision (with one member also choosing to abstain), the board voted to approve option 1, but choose to implement the plan in the 2025-2026 school year. Originally, Phase 1 was scheduled to begin in the fall of 2024.
However, at Wednesday’s meeting several board members expressed concerns with this initial timeline, fearing it would not give students, families and teachers enough time to adjust and plan for the upcoming school year.
Option 2 proposed pulling students from both West Boulevard Elementary School and Grant Elementary School, adding a total of 44 students to RBES. Lastly, option 3 combined options 1 and 2, moving a total of 72 students to RBES from Fairview Elementary School and West Boulevard Elementary School.
Prior to the meeting, community members had the chance to complete a survey outlining which option they would most prefer. According to results, residents overwhelmingly preferred option 1, with about 67 percent of respondents indicating they are either supportive or very supportive of the plan.
On the other hand, 68 percent of respondents were either unsupportive or very unsupportive of option 2, while another 41 percent were either unsupportive or very unsupportive of option 3.
CPS board member Blake Willoughby said the board took these results into account prior to making tonight’s decision.
“It is never an easy thing, it is always difficult, we don’t take it lightly,” Willoughby said. “The responses to the surveys, all that feedback–we use that. The board sees it. Our consultant gives us the summarization of those themes, but the also we look at the full results of the survey.”
According to Willoughby, the primary reason for these attendance area changes is to address recent growth in the Columbia Public School system. According to data from the district, 18,213 students were enrolled in Columbia public schools in 2020. As of 2022, this number jumped to 18,800 students.
Although growth has trended upward as of late, Willoughby said predictions show this could plateau in the coming years. As such, he said this makes the decisions the district makes regarding re-zoning now all the more important.
“That in some ways, makes this even more of a difficult decision, because these could become attendance areas for some time,” Willoughby said.
Willoughby said these attendance changes are necessary in order to ensure students have the best learning environment possible.
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“We know that we have some overcrowding and some over utilization happening in certain buildings, and so we’re really trying to alleviate that,” Willoughby said.
The approval of Phase 1 comes as several school expansion plans are taking place in Columbia. Beginning Friday, crews will break ground on the new Southwest Elementary School, which is predicted to be completed by July 2026. Additions will also be made to Battle Elementary School, allowing the school to accommodate roughly 650 students.
Plans to outline the project will be completed by August of 2025. The Columbia Area Career Center is also undergoing an expansion, adding nearly 20,000 square feet by December 2024.
The impact of this growth goes beyond Columbia elementary schools, which is reflected in Phases 2 and 3 of the attendance area changes. According to CPS, Phase 2 focuses on filling the new Battle Elementary School and is set to be implemented in the 2025-2026 school year.
Finally, phase 3 addresses filling the new Southwest Elementary School and will be implemented in the 2026-2027 school year. Both phases 2 and 3 will impact middle and high school enrollments.
However, some parents are concerned with what these changes will mean for students, including Lee Keith, a mom of a student at RBES. Although Kieth’s child won’t be moved, she fears relocation could be difficult for students that are.
“It just seems disruptive to me to be moving these students, who already have established relationships with their schools and their routines to be pulled and moved around,” Keith said.
Keith added while it is always a positive to have a more diverse group of students, she likes that it is a community-oriented school.
“We go to school with our neighbors and the people across the street from us, and when you’re kind of on the other side [of town], you don’t get those same day-to-day tie ins,” Kieth said. “You know, you see each other at school, but maybe not outside of school.”
Willoughby said the board recognizes how difficult this may be for students, however these changes are needed.
“The reason why we’re doing this isn’t because we want to be changing attendance areas and going through this difficult process,” Willoughby said. “But it’s because we’ve been doing these, over the last decade, building of new additions to elementary schools or building new buildings and really trying to address the growth that we’ve been seeing in our community.”
The board said a survey regarding Phases 2 and 3 will be sent out on April 29.