New Waukee Boundaries

A Waukee School board meeting occurred on October 27th, 2022 for the superintendent and board members to discuss school boundaries and new school concepts.

During the meeting, three concepts were discussed. Two of the first concepts were about a split-feeder system where warriors and wolves would be together and the other concept was a single-feeder system. Industrial Tech. teacher Andrew Hauptman said, “Waukee continues to grow, so I believe these won’t be the last major changes that they will have to decide on.” Waukee is continuing to grow rapidly and is currently showing no signs of slowing.

The split-feeder concepts introduced the idea of Trailridge, an upcoming middle-level school. The plan explains how the building will be a 6th-7th grade building during the 2023-2024 school year, then a 6th-8th grade building the next year and then it will become an 8th-9th grade building in the 2025-2026 school year. With this transition between grades, the school board is hoping to help relieve stress on other middle schools while building another 6th-7th grade building. FCS teacher Joanna Winston talked about the split-feeder concept stating, “While a split feeder system can logistically be tricky for after-school bussing and sports programs, I feel the benefits of maintaining the 6/7 and 8/9 structure are greater when considering staffing needs, student development and readiness, and creating a cohesive and welcoming school climate.” With the split feeder system, 8th-grade sports would be all combined, and then 9th-grade sports and activities would be split up and students will be bussed off to their feeder schools to do their sports and activities.

The single-feeder concept would make Prairieview and Trailridge 9th-grade schools. Superintendent Brad Buck stated, “If PV were to become a 9th-grade building, it would go from currently housing students who all go to NW to housing all of the 9th-grade students who would go to WHS.”  The four other middle schools– North Middle, Waukee Middle, South Middle, and Timberline, would become 6th-8th grade buildings and would have two separate middle schools going into each high school. FCS teacher Joanna Winston thought of difficulties with the single-feeder concept. “The proposal for a 9th-grade center would be difficult logistically when talking about offering a variety of classes. According to our meeting with Dr. Buck, we would need to have more teachers on a traveling schedule, meaning more teachers would be likely traveling from the 6-8 building to teach some classes at the 9th-grade center,” explained Winston. She added that it may be difficult for hands-on teachers like FCS, woodworking and art to be traveling teachers, as they would not have much time to get set up for their classes.