Maize district still debating student placement

The years-long battle over student placement in Maize is continuing this summer, but officials said a new task force hopes to recommend changes to school district leaders soon.

“They are taking a closer look at potential transition plans and hope to present a recommended policy to the Maize Board of Education as soon as one’s ready,” said district spokeswoman Lori O’Toole Buselt.

“We’ve not indicated yet what will happen with the placement process next year.”

The committee, which met for the eighth time last week, is the latest development in the district’s ongoing struggle over its system of assigning students to middle and high schools.

Unlike most school districts, Maize has no geographical attendance boundaries that determine where a child goes to school.

Since Maize South High School opened in 2009, district leaders have let families request which high school they would like their children to attend. The district tries to assign about two-thirds of freshmen to Maize High, which is larger, and one-third to Maize South. Several times, though, the number of students requesting Maize South has exceeded that threshold, and the district has used a lottery to assign some of them to Maize High.

Earlier this year, 54 students who had requested Maize South were randomly selected to be placed at Maize High. Forty-four of those families submitted a “request for change” form – essentially asking again to be placed at Maize South – and the district granted all the requests.

Maize superintendent Chad Higgins said the placement policy was “one of the biggest deals I heard about right after I got the job” last July. He said the current policy breeds an atmosphere of informal recruiting, conflict and anxiety, and he pledged to have a long-term solution in place or at least approved before placements are assigned for the 2017-18 school year.

Buselt said a new student placement policy team, which includes parents, staff members, students and two board members, is “working to gather data related to the various options.” It’s unclear whether the group plans to propose traditional boundaries, a feeder-pattern system or some other solution.

The group plans to recommend a new policy and “phased transition plan” to the school board soon, possibly by the board’s regular meeting on Aug. 8, Buselt said.

“The board has indicated that they won’t take immediate action at the meeting (when) it’s presented,” she said. “They’ve indicated in past board discussions that they would like some time to evaluate.

“The goal has been, just as quickly as we can responsibly do this, to take a look at a new recommended policy.”

This story was originally published July 10, 2016 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Maize district still debating student placement."