Nearly every elementary school attendance area boundary in the growing Bethel School District will be changed tonight.

The School Board is to adopt the revisions, to take effect for the 2009-2010 school year, following months of committee and community meetings. No deviations are expected.

“There are some pretty significant changes,” especially affecting Graham, Northstar and Clover Creek schools, said Rob Van Slyke, the district’s executive director of operations.

Van Slyke didn’t have a count on exactly how many kids will move schools, but he said it will be in the thousands.

The only school not directly affected is Roy Elementary, which Van Slyke called “an outlier” because of its separation from the rest of the sprawling district.

Bethel will grow from 15 to 17 elementary schools next fall. The two new campuses, built with some proceeds from a $175 million voter-approved bond issue, will help balance 9,300 elementary students among schools, Van Slyke said.

The 18,500-student public school system also is opening a new junior high school next year. But it will be awhile before Liberty Junior High sees its own student body. Spanaway Lake High School students will use the new school during the 2009-2010 academic year while their own campus is remodeled.

The Spanaway-based district grew by about 5,000 students in recent years. It’s expected to add about another 1,000 kids by 2014.

Liberty will be its sixth junior high. Bethel also has three comprehensive high schools, an alternative junior high/high school and an online academy.

Principals and other school district officials are working to make the transition between schools as seamless as possible for families, Van Slyke said. But he and others concede some kids may experience true growing pains as they move.

The committee charged with redrawing the lines made a unanimous recommendation to the School Board, but “everybody has to give and take a little bit,” board president Brenda Rogers said. She praised the committee for doing a difficult task as fairly as possible.

The committee of district employees and citizens used demographic information, projections and the district’s bus routing software, Van Slyke said.

The transportation department’s input was crucial because those who route the buses know where kids can be safely picked up and dropped off.

Committee members tried not to split neighborhoods and to allow kids to attend the school closest to their homes, Van Slyke said.

But he acknowledged there were some unpopular decisions.

The school a child attends shouldn’t make a difference in his or her education, since the district has the “same kinds of programs” and curricula in all schools, he added.

If a parent is unhappy, there’s still the option of applying for a transfer but no guarantee it will be granted, Van Slyke said.

Parent John Ellis, who served on the boundary committee, believes the decisions were fair and well thought out.

Initially, he expected the district would “just take a pen and draw a boundary line and say, ‘There you go,’” Ellis said.

He learned there was a great deal of planning and care in the process, he added.

“I totally understand parents’ concerns when boundaries change,” Ellis said.

But kids are resilient, he said.

“I think if our parents can support the process, the kids will do great,” he said.

Kris Sherman: 253-597-8659

Bethel School Board meeting

When: 7 tonight

Where: Bethel School District headquarters, 516 176th St. E., Spanaway

On the agenda: A revision of elementary school attendance area boundaries during public session. A midyear review of Superintendent Tom Seigel to be conducted in closed session.

Public comment: Yes. There is a time on the agenda for public comment.

More information: Go to www.bethelsd.org.