Wayzata schools plan to redraw districts

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WAYZATA, Minn. (KMSP) - A new school is a sign of growth, but as Wayzata residents are seeing, it can also stir up controversy due to boundary changes.

The district will hold a feedback session at Central Middle School where board members say no decisions have yet been made. Parents will bring ideas on what might work better than the boundary recommendations.

While it’s getting close to the end of the year, it’s the fall of 2019 parents and students are already thinking about.

“A boundary change doesn’t make sense because we are so close,” said parent Elizabeth Aseltine.

The Wayzata school district went through boundary changes three years ago when they opened their eighth elementary school. Now it’s time for the ninth, breaking ground this month. So, once again, the lines will be re-drawn, impacting about 600 students. Many of them will come from the Heather Ponds neighborhood and Greenwood Elementary.

“We’re one of the closest neighborhoods to the school. We have sight lines to and from, so it seems like we were just dots on a map that when the committee was making their decisions they couldn’t see how close we actually were,” Aseltine said.

“Every time that there is a district, a proposal for a boundary change, the district has asked that [the Heather neighborhood] run from their neighboring school. So it’s been a constant battle that is very frustrating for our neighborhood,” parent Kellie Hurwitz said.

The committee, which was developed to study possible changes, looks at capacity, transportation and existing homes around a school. School administrators say they do understand the frustration, but with projected growth, they simply have to make some tough calls.

“It is difficult, but it is a good problem to have. I would far rather be working with our community to grow than to look at what school we were looking to close because we were a declining school district,” Director of Administrative Services Kristin Tollison said.

They are projecting another 1,000 homes in Wayzata by the year 2020, and while there are no plans for another school just yet, the area shows no signs of slowing down.