Cheney School Board plans for school districts' boundary review

The Cheney School Board discussed its upcoming boundary review and heard several project updates at their Oct. 24 meeting, including an assessment of the Cheney High School athletics program by Athletics Director Jeff Chandler.

The board heard the reasoning for the boundary review being undertaken by the district, which will evaluate current elementary and middle level attendance areas. The goal of the review is to gather community input regarding priorities and recommend new attendance area boundaries. The last boundary review was completed in 2012.

Enrollment at several local elementary schools has jumped significantly, including Sunset Elementary, which has increased from 384 students in 2015 to 522 in 2018. At Windsor Elementary, enrollment is currently at 535 students, up from 486 three years ago.

At the middle school level, a large uptick in sixth-grade students has made the boundary review all the more necessary. The sixth-grade class at Cheney Middle School is 182 students, while at Westwood Middle School it’s 250.

“You see that growth out on the West Plains is accelerating and how that’s affecting our schools and capacity,” Assistant Superintendent Sean Dotson said.

The review’s findings and suggestions will have to be approved by the board prior to approval.

District staff then gave a variety of reports, including a financial update, a math curriculum adoption report and a presentation by Chandler, who was hired last year.

In that presentation, Chandler outlined strengths and weaknesses within the athletics program at the high school, noting that support for athletics by school administration is excellent, as is the district’s Special Olympics, which is supported by school funds.

Going forward, Chandler said he hopes to create a culture of inclusion in athletics, implementing a unified basketball team that includes both general education and special education students, as well as ramping up parent attendance at athletic events.

“The best thing athletics can do is help develop better people,” Chandler said.

The board also unanimously approved a revision to Policy 3230 addressing student privacy, which defines the scope of an appropriate search and requires that any search conducted not be “excessively intrusive.

Shannen Talbot can be reached at shannen@cheneyfreepress.com.