New school boundaries

On November 13, 2023, Waukee Superintendent Dr. Brad Buck and the Waukee Community School District announced the major changes planned to the Waukee elementary school boundaries. These changes were also presented at a town hall meeting on November 16 and then revised and announced again at a district school board meeting on November 27.

The proposed changes included establishing the upcoming Waterford Elementary boundary east of Alice’s Road and Meredith Drive, moving the Walnut Hills boundary to the west of Alice’s Road to Warrior Lane and Maple Grove to the west of Grand Prairie Parkway to SE LA Grant Parkway. About 635 students will be affected, 12% of the K-4 population. Radiant will be the most affected, with 500 students being relocated to Walnut Hills and Waterford. Walnut Hills will also see double movement, with students being moved out to Waterford as Radiant students move in. A revised elementary to secondary school feeder system has also been proposed. This will have Sugar Creek, Brookview, Eason, Woodland Hills, Maple Grove and Waukee Elementary all feeding students into the southern secondary schools: Timberline and Waukee South Middle Schools, then Prairiview 9th Grade Center and then Waukee High School. The northern secondary school feed — Waukee and Waukee North Middle Schools, then to Trailridge 9th Grade Center and then to Waukee Northwest High School — will be fed into Waterford, Grant Ragan, Walnut Hills, Shuler and Radiant.

Professional demographers have thoroughly planned out all of the mentioned changes to account for the rapid growth of the Waukee School District. 

In an email Dr. Buck sent out to Waukee parents, he stated, “We’re considering factors such as building capacity, class sizes, transportation needs, family dynamics, and more. Please rest assured that we have worked to minimize the impact on students and families as much as possible.” 

Other motivations for the boundary changes include maintaining the proposed feeder system for the reorganized grade buildings and balancing out the number of students in the two high schools. Another goal was to balance out elementary schools to prevent overcrowding, especially in Radiant, which at its current rate of growth would reach 1,600 students in the span of five years, in a school built for a capacity of 750. Consideration was also put towards neighborhoods aging out, with schools like Shuler and Walnut Hills seeing dwindling enrollment as the newer schools rapidly increase in student population. These boundary adjustments are expected to last about five years before a new elementary school is added, which will once again lead to major revisions to the boundaries.

A community town hall meeting was held on November 16, where many parents expressed grievances about these boundary changes. Many of these frustrations revolved around potential safety issues, the separation of elementary school students and general dissatisfaction with the idea of students having to be moved to a new school. Parents especially expressed concern regarding the social, emotional and educational issues that may result in so many students being moved schools. Many of the safety concerns revolved around the corner of Douglas and Berkshire Parkways, with students now having to get to school across the street, which is a consistently busy road that vehicles often drive through recklessly. However, Dr. Buck has brought up ideas for potential solutions of implementing traffic lights and crossing guards or even busing kids across in order to prevent any incidents. In the original proposal, there were some side effects with how the boundaries were laid out, with some communities being split. 

“We are struggling with the idea of having Waukee Elementary divided at all, but 10th St. actually divides our neighborhood in half,” a speaker from the Spring Crest neighborhood stated at the town hall meeting. “It’s not just a division of the school, but also a division of the neighborhood.” 

Other concerns include the impact this can have on already congested morning traffic, the isolation younger students may feel when entering a new school and environment, as well as how that will affect their academic performance.

Following this meeting and the issues brought up by members of the community, a revised proposal was drawn up and presented at the school board meeting on November 27. A prevalent point in these proposals has been exceptions, or ‘grandfathering,’ a now outdated term for the process. With the revised plan, possible exceptions now include current Sugar Creek, Radiant and Walnut Hills fourth graders in specific zones being able to remain in their current elementary schools. However, this will be without transportation being provided by the school. Current 6th through 11th grade students and their younger siblings will also be able to continue at Trailridge and Waukee Northwest. One of the major concerns brought up with the prior plan was Waukee Elementary having a split feeder into both north and south schools; however, this new plan has altered the boundaries for Waukee Elementary students to now go into just the southern secondary schools, a major departure from how the boundaries work right now. Exceptions only apply to current families living within the district as of Fall of 2023. Families that move in or move around within the district will have to follow the new boundary guidelines. Exceptions are expected to be revised, along with the overall boundary map, in the next five years.

There are some issues presented by even the new and revised proposal. “The longer we extend exceptions, the longer there’s [a variation of] the two high school sizes,” Dr. Buck stated at the town hall meeting on the matter of exceptions and the potential overcrowding. 

To accommodate many of the frustrations with the original plan, the elementary schools are now less balanced, with Radiant, Waukee and Woodland Hills being projected to reach 99% utilization, meaning available capacity, by the years 2028 and 2029. Waterford will also be starting at 76% utilization when it comes online rather than the anticipated 60%, while Walnut Hills will be decreasing from 91% to 81% utilization. This issue is significant as balancing out the elementary schools was one of the main objectives of the proposal to begin with. This is especially due to special education, pre-kindergarten and non-English first-language programs requiring space within the buildings. This means that another boundary overhaul is an inevitability that will have to be watched out for in the future — there is likely to be little longevity to the current plan. 

As the Waukee Community School District continues rapidly expanding far beyond what many of the schools were built for, it can be difficult to find a solution that not only prevents overcrowding but also appeases the community. The current revised proposal, while still having some flaws and likely to need even more future revisions, is a culmination of professional demographic research and honest communication with educators and parents to find the best of both worlds. It manages to keep most students and siblings together through the exception process and also prevents a separate feeder system with schools. Remaining aware as students of the changing school district and how the school board is handling the boundaries is the best way to know the future of Waukee as a community and home.

Town Hall Meeting – https://www.youtube.com/live/A95bK7p0sWU?feature=shared&t=1039School Board Meeting – https://www.youtube.com/live/muqHJmTDTg0?feature=shared&t=683