Jamestown school board to decide on boundaries for student movement

Feb. 26—JAMESTOWN — The Jamestown Public School Board is expected to decide where students will attend elementary school beginning in the 2025-26 academic year when Washington Elementary School will be closed.

The school board approved on Feb. 17 referring a boundary study to the facility committee with the understanding that the board would choose one of two phased approaches — phase 1A or phase 1B — to move students into other elementary schools for the 2025-26 school year.

The facility committee met on Monday, Feb. 24, and was expected to make a recommendation on what phased approach the school district should take, Superintendent Rob Lech said.

“We want to be able to move forward,” he said. “We understand the desire to get that information as soon as possible, but we also want to make sure it’s right.”

Washington Elementary School is closing at the end of the current school year. Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, the Jamestown Public School District will operate four elementary schools with seven elementary classrooms of each grade level for K-5.

If the school district continued to operate five elementary schools, the general fund would have been projected to dry up by the 2029-30 school year, The Jamestown Sun reported in September. With the district already capped for its general fund levy, the cost to operate the same facilities and staff as the 2023-24 school year would result in a complete loss of the general fund balance by the 2029-30 school year.

The school district hired RSP & Associates in October to complete enrollment and boundary studies.

The goal of the enrollment study is to help the school board, administration and the public understand how to make the best decision for students at the classroom level, the study says.

At the school board meeting on Feb. 17, Ginna Wallace, planner with RSP & Associates, presented findings of RSP’s enrollment and boundary studies. She presented two options for a phased approach for boundary considerations for the 2025-26 school year.

RSP collected and reviewed enrollment, building, demographics and U.S. Census Bureau data, according to its PowerPoint presentation on the enrollment and boundary studies. Projections were used as the baseline for boundary conversations.

There will be another phase for moving students if a bond referendum is approved for a new elementary school. The phase for moving students will depend on voters approving either a new two-section or three-school section.

An elementary section is a classroom. The school district currently has eight classrooms for each grade in K-5 across five elementary schools.

In the future, the school board could bring a referendum forward for a new elementary school to address declining future enrollment and facility needs.

The referendum options are:

* Retire two buildings including one with a classroom for each grade in K-5 and another with two classrooms for the same grades. This option also includes building an elementary school that has two classrooms for each grade in K-5. The school district would have seven classrooms for each grade in K-5 in four buildings. The estimated cost is $18 million to build the elementary school with two classrooms for each grade in K-5. The district would request up to 16 mills for the sinking and interest levy.

* Retire three buildings, including two with one classroom for each grade in K-5 and one with two classrooms for the same grades. This option also includes building an elementary school that has three classrooms for each grade in K-5. The school district would have seven classrooms for each grade in K-5 in three buildings. The estimated cost is $25 million to build the elementary school with three classrooms for each grade in K-5. The district would request up to 22 mills for the sinking and interest levy.

The school district is expected to see a decrease of 85 students — 40 students at elementary schools, 40 students at Jamestown Middle School and five students at Jamestown High School — over the next five years, Wallace said at the Feb. 17 school board meeting.

“The majority of that loss is more the elementary and middle school as high school more stabilizes these next five years,” she said.

The enrollment study says under utilization of facilities poses challenges for the school district. In the 2029-30 school year, three elementary schools — Louis L’Amour, Roosevelt and Washington — and Jamestown Middle School are projected to use 70% of the maximum capacity.

The study says the population in Jamestown for children younger than 5 years old has stayed stable from 2013-2022 with an average of 1,216.

The study shows that the school district had an enrollment of 2,181 students in the 2015-16 school year. The total enrollment has decreased to 2,021 students for the current school year.

The school district lost 190 students but gained 203 students for the current school year, a positive net of 13 students. In 2023-24, the district lost 215 students and gained 168 students, a net of minus 47 with the greatest share at the elementary level. Outmigration at the high school has increased the past two years.

Out-of-district enrollment has also decreased the past five years with 66 students residing outside of the school district’s boundary.

The study also says the average high school grade is 42 students larger than the average elementary grade. Since the 2020-21 school year, the average grade size has decreased at every level with the largest seen at the middle school with a 14.8% loss.

Over the next five years, the average middle school class is projected to decrease the most with an 8.1% loss while the average elementary class decreases by 5.2%. The high school grades are projected to remain stable.

Choosing phase 1A would impact 151 students from the current K-4 grades, according to RSP’s boundary study.

In phase 1A, the boundary for Lincoln Elementary School expands west past Washington. The Louis L’Amour Elementary School boundary would expand north into the Lincoln boundary. The boundary for Roosevelt Elementary School would expand west into Lincoln.

Lincoln would keep its current boundary in phase 1A, and Gussner would not be geographically impacted.

The projected enrollment for the 2025-26 school year would be 223 students at Gussner, 216 at Lincoln, 132 at Louis L’Amour and 226 at Roosevelt. The projected enrollment remains about the same at each elementary school for the 2026-27 school year.

Choosing phase 1B would impact 223 students from the current K-4 grades, the boundary study says.

In phase 1B, the Lincoln boundary expands west past Washington and north into the current Gussner areas. The Lincoln boundary also expands north into the current Gussner boundary to match a future phase 2A or 2B boundary if a new school is built where Washington currently is located.

The Gussner boundary decreases on the north side but expands on the west side. The Louis L’Amour and Roosevelt boundaries would expand into the current Lincoln boundary.

In phase 1B, the projected enrollment for the 2025-26 school year would be 222 students at Gussner, 215 at Lincoln, 132 at Louis L’Amour and 226 at Roosevelt. The projected enrollment remains about the same at each elementary school for the 2026-27 school year.

Wallace said choosing phase 1A would impact more students in phase 2.

“If you do more adjustment in phase like in phase 1B you have a smoother transition into phase two,” Wallace said.

In phases 2A and 2B, the new elementary school is referred to as Washington Elementary School.

In phase 2A, two elementary schools would be retired and a new elementary school would open with two classrooms for each grade in K-5. Lincoln would close, and about 100 of those students would attend the new elementary school, Wallace said.

The Washington boundary would expand east into the current Lincoln boundary and north into the current Gussner boundary. The Gussner boundary would expand on the northeast corner of the current Lincoln boundary to increase enrollment.

In phase 2A, the projected enrollment for the 2027-28 school year would be 228 students at Gussner, 133 at Louis L’Amour, 223 at Roosevelt and 192 at Washington. The projected enrollment remains about the same at each elementary school for the 2028-29 and 2029-30 school years.

In phase 2B, three elementary schools — Lincoln, Louis L’Amour and Washington — would be retired and a new elementary school would open with three classrooms for each grade in K-5.

The new Washington boundary would expand west into the current Lincoln boundary, north into the current Gussner boundary and south into the current Louis L’Amour boundary west of the James River.

In phase 2B, the projected enrollment for the 2027-28 school year would be 228 students at Gussner, 223 at Roosevelt and 326 at Washington. Gussner’s enrollment would be projected to increase by about 12 students to 240 for the 2028-29 and 2029-30 school years. The projected enrollment at Roosevelt and Washington would remain about the same for the 2028-29 and 2029-30 school years.

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