FERNDALE - Attendance boundaries for Ferndale elementary schools next school year will match what a majority of community members said they preferred.
The school district's boundary task force presented two maps to the Ferndale School Board Thursday, Dec. 13, and members voted unanimously for Map A, which more closely follows the district's current elementary school boundary map.
People who submitted public comments at meetings or online preferred Map A three to one over the other option, said Superintendent Linda Quinn. The district also received a letter from the Lummi Indian Business Council saying they preferred Map A as well.
"There was a preponderance of support for one of the maps," Quinn said.
The boundary changes are necessary because the district is closing Mountain View Elementary School at the end of this school year.
In the approved map, Eagleridge absorbs most of the Mountain View students and remains split, pulling a smaller number of students from the tip of the Lummi Reservation. Skyline continues to be split to take part of the Lummi Reservation, with its boundary moving south past Smokehouse Road. Students in the north end of Central Elementary's current boundaries will move to Custer Elementary. Central Elementary's boundaries will move south, and Cascadia will be similar to its current boundaries.
The other map almost completely changed the areas from which Skyline and Cascadia would draw students.
The boundary task force's next job is to work on middle school boundaries. The group will meet in January and could come up with proposals by the end of that month, Quinn said.
Now that an elementary map has been selected, the transportation department can work on creating bus routes for the new boundaries. District administration will work on how those boundaries will be implemented, including how many waivers will be granted and under what conditions.
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