Two months after a briefing about potential changes to Genesee Hill and Lafayette Elementary Schools’ attendance boundaries (WSB coverage here), the official proposal goes to the School Board on Wednesday.

The changes starting this fall are meant to keep Genesee Hill – identified in the agenda document as the most populous elementary in the entire district – from going even further over capacity, while taking advantage of available space at Lafayette. The agenda document says GHES currently has 718 students and a “seat capacity” of 660, while Lafayette has 394 students and a capacity of 550. Multiple scenarios were presented at the October meeting we covered, and the final recommendation is described this way:

This district looked at the impact of each scenario with full grandfathering, no grandfathering, and limited grandfathering. Based on this analysis and feedback from the community, the recommended boundary change is Scenario F. Scenario F is a combination of Scenario C and E. There are 122 students living in the change area in grades K-4, all of whom would be grandfathered. Many of the students in Scenario F are in the walk zone for Lafayette but currently attend Genesee Hill, so this would be a benefit for future families in the area. Although Scenario F with grandfathering still has Genesee Hill over the capacity of the building, it does not bring the building further overcapacity as anticipated from the projections if no boundary change or a smaller boundary change were to take place. It also minimizes disruption and provides stability for current families, which has been a guiding principle of the School Board and request of families

So if the board finalizes this proposal, scheduled for introduction Wednesday and a final vote two weeks later (January 17th), current GHES students in the boundary-change zone would get to stay there, but as of this fall, elementary students moving into the area or just reaching school age would be going to Lafayette. While the meeting’s public-comment period has already been filled, you can contact board members by e-mail or phone via info you’ll find on the right side of this page.