The Bend-La Pine School Board on Tuesday voted to uphold the district’s new boundaries for the 2011-12 school year.

The final vote was five in favor of upholding the superintendent’s decision to support the boundaries and two school board members, Nori Juba and Beth Bagley, against.

The hearing, which lasted nearly two hours, was the culmination of a months-long, contentious process to eliminate an overcrowding problem at Cascade Middle School, which currently has more than 900 students in a building with capacity for 800.

Without a boundary change, officials expected enrollment would reach 975 students next year.

More than three dozen community members were on hand to support the three Pine Ridge Elementary parents who spoke at the hearing, and after the vote expressed their disgust at the decision.

“You’re going to look back and say, ‘Why did we do that?’ ” said parent Stacey Hood, who said the boundary change created racial and socioeconomic segregation among middle schools.

“Districts pay millions of dollars to undo what you just did. … I just cannot believe it.”

Under the new boundaries, students from Pine Ridge Elementary will attend Pilot Butte Middle School and students from Ensworth Elementary have a choice between attending Pilot Butte and Sky View middle schools. A small group of Buckingham Elementary students will also move to Sky View Middle School.

In April, Superintendent Ron Wilkinson signed off on the new boundaries. They go into effect at the start of the 2011-12 school year, and feature a generous grandfathering process that will allow affected students currently attending Cascade Middle School to continue receiving transportation for the next two years.

Four meetings

At four heavily attended public forums and in committee meetings, parents accused the committee of featuring too many parents and community members from the northwest side of town.

They also said they were worried about the quality of education at Pilot Butte and their children’s safety there, and worried the recommendation created too large an imbalance of socioeconomic status.

Tuesday, Greg Colvin, an attorney with the High Desert Education Service District, moderated the appeal hearing, which was initiated by a group of Pine Ridge parents and headed by Shelley Hall. Each side had 20 minutes to present its case, five minutes to rebut its opponents, and could then make closing comments.

Several parents spoke against the boundary change. They said the district’s process lacked due process because parents weren’t sufficiently made aware of the committee’s formation.

“We never had a chance to be involved and it wasn’t communicated to us,” said Michael Broderick.

The group said that while High Lakes parents were notified of the boundary committee forming in November, the Pine Ridge parents didn’t get word in a newsletter or other fashion until January.

They also suggested the new boundaries would create socioeconomic and racial segregation.

The group pointed to research showing that schools with high poverty levels struggle more than others.

“The negative is compounded,” Hood said. “This not only impacts students moving to Pilot Butte, but it also impacts students who are already there. It benefits very few, albeit a loud and powerful few.”

And the group called the voting process “heavily biased,” noting that three of the five voting options were in favor of the option, while the two other options were against. There was no neutral option.

The boundary changes, Hood said, will create a “private school with public funds on one side of town, while presenting Pilot Butte with more challenges.”

Instead of keeping the new boundaries, the parents suggested the district start over with a new committee next year.

New school falls victim

Wilkinson and Deputy Superintendent John Rexford spoke on behalf of the district.

Wilkinson said a boundary process three years ago didn’t address the middle school overcrowding because he and other administrators had expected to go out for a bond and build a new middle school.

But the economy tanked, he said, and as a result no middle school will be built anytime soon.

Rexford walked the board through the process and explained how the district communicated with parents and used the media during the process. He said the committee spent 35 hours in meetings, and considered many options. And he pointed out the various concerns the committee had as it pushed forward the final boundary recommendation.

“The minimal level of consensus was indicative of the committee’s struggle to find the best solution.

“The committee was concerned it could not overcome the economic geography of Bend with school attendance boundaries,” Rexford said.

Ultimately, Rexford said, the district’s new boundaries were not universally favored but were the best the committee could do after a full process took place.

“The bottom line is that as a board and as a district, for years we’ve used a lot of community input … to do some heavy lifting, considering issues and trying to come to the best solution,” Wilkinson said. “In this case, whatever option they came up with we’ll have a group of people that disagree and oppose that decision.”

After rebuttal, the board discussed the issue.

Bagley, who lives in the Pine Ridge area, voted against the boundaries.

“This will perpetuate a problem we have. We don’t make it better, we make it worse,” she said. “We have an opportunity to make a better decision.”

Board chairwoman Peggy Kinkade, who voted in favor of upholding the boundaries, said she knew it wasn’t the best decision but supported the committee’s work.

“I think it’s safe to say (the committee) agonized over this,” she said.

“There’s no easy way to draw line or they would have done it a long time ago. … They have come up with what I think to me sounds like the lesser of all evils in making this boundary adjustment. But I put my faith in the process.”

Board member Tom Wilson said no matter what, not everyone would be happy.

“It’s never a great thing, I guess,” he said.

Now that the board has upheld the district’s decision, the parents can take their concerns to the Oregon Department of Education or other agencies if they choose.