Toledo Public School board approves new school boundaries
5/27/2009The Toledo Board of Education Tuesday night approved boundary changes that affect 13 buildings.
The changes were needed as two elementary schools close, two open, and the district looks to deal with the situation of some buildings having too many students and others too few.
"As we go forward in this process, we're making boundary adjustments to meet the needs of the district," Toledo Public Schools Superintendent John Foley said.
The school board also voted to increase lunch prices for the first time in 14 years.
The board approved cuts this month to save $10 million next year. The cuts included closing Fulton and Nathan Hale elementary schools.
Tuesday night's vote lets parents know where their children's new schools are.
All students in the current Nathan Hale area will go to the new King Elementary, which will open for the 2009-10 school year on Forrest Avenue.
The Fulton students will be divided, for the most part, along Delaware Avenue.
Those who live south of Delaware will go to Glenwood and those who live north of that dividing line will go to Rosa Parks.
The new Spring Elementary School also is opening for the 2009-10 school year and it needed students, so its boundary lines were drawn to include children currently at Riverside and Sherman.
Other boundary changes were needed because Ottawa River and Larchmont elementary schools are changing to kindergarten-through-eighth buildings.
For the upcoming school year, Ottawa River is adding sixth and seventh grades, with eighth grade to follow for the 2010-11 school year.
Larchmont is adding sixth grade this year, followed by seventh and eighth grades the next two years.
Students who attended Edgewater Elementary or those who both went to Chase STEM Academy and live north of Manhattan Boulevard and will be in sixth or seventh grade in the coming year will go to Ottawa River and stay there through eighth grade.
Whittier Elementary students who live north of Laskey Road will go to Larchmont for kindergarten through sixth grade starting this year and will stay there as seventh and eighth grades are added.
There also are several changes for Keyser Elementary's area.
Students who live west of Wenz Road and south of Hill Avenue will go to Reynolds Elementary. Those who live west of Reynolds Road and a north-south line drawn by the district from Shadow Lane to Maple Lane will go to Hawkins Elementary.
Mr. Foley met with each high school community in March for a series of seven public hearings on proposed changes.
Last week district officials again met with those in the Rogers, Woodward, and Start areas to discuss changes made after the first meetings based on public suggestions, such as not dividing a subdivision.
The school board also approved last night increasing the costs of breakfast and lunch for the first time since 1995.
Elementary lunch will increase 10 cents from $1.40 to $1.50 and middle and high school lunches will jump 25 cents from $1.50 to $1.75.
Elementary breakfast is increasing 15 cents from 60 cents to 75 cents and middle and high school breakfast prices will go up 25 cents from 75 cents to $1.
Mr. Foley said the district needed to increase prices because of rising food costs.
He said the district surveyed other area districts before making the recommendation.
"We still have the best deal in town," he said.
Also last night, the school board passed a resolution in support of the Positive Behavior Intervention Support program.
This month Toledoans United for Social Action, known as TUSA, asked the school board to support four days of intensive training to implement the discipline program.
The discipline program also was recommended by a discipline committee created after board member Jack Ford investigated the district's high numbers of suspensions and expulsions.
Contact Meghan Gilbert at:
mgilbert@theblade.com
or 419-724-6134.