Boundary Realignment FAQs

Whether your child is moving to a new school or remaining at their current school, share the facts and reasons for school boundary changes, including the goal of making sure that classrooms aren’t overcrowded and that all kids get similar access to teacher time. Experts say that adults have the power to either help children cope with anxiety or to add additional stress based on how both feelings and facts are framed and shared. When talking about transitioning to a new school, focus on the positive aspects. If your child shares fears or anxieties, allow them to talk about them, as that is a healthy coping mechanism.

More than likely, some of your child’s classmates will not be moving to their new school with them. Encourage your child to stay connected to their friends over the summer break and on weekends during the upcoming school year. Share with them that it is okay to have friends in their previous school while they make new friends in their new school.

Over the summer, make time to create new friendships. Ways to do this could include: participating in summer programs offered by your child’s new school, participating in both school and community events, or visiting a park or local playground in your new school zone.

Each school will offer events in the spring and/or summer to welcome new families. This is a perfect opportunity to meet families and staff at your child’s new school. Each school will communicate with incoming and current families more information about the events.

Each school will offer an orientation for families new to the school. Attending events, transition activities, and orientations at the new school will help you and your child to become acquainted with the staff and ask questions. School Counselors and Student & Family Resource Specialists (SFRSs) are available to help you and your child process the transition.

Volunteering at your child’s new school will show your child that you are invested in their education and transition to their new school. This will also allow you to get to know other families within the community and the staff at the new school. Each school has a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) or Family Teacher Organization (FTO).  Contact the school office for more information about these organizations.

Below are the links to the public presentations and maps since the inception of the project.

Phase I – 5 Starting Points

Phase I – Refined Options

Phase II – December- Preliminary Options

Phase II – February Refined- Options

Realignment: Elementary

Realignment: Middle

Phase I – Final Report

Current Share of Enrollment

New Share of Enrollment

For current students, the new boundaries will go into effect at the start of the 2022-2023 school year. Students who enroll between now and the end of this school year should contact the Office of Enrollment for more information on their school of residence for the current school year.

Use the link on the district website (https://sdlancaster.org/grow/school-boundary-realignment/) to check if a student’s school of residence will be changing for the 2022-2023 school year. This link is also available on the district website under school boundary realignment.

Yes, the Board approved allowing students rising into Grade 5 or Grade 8 next year complete a continuation request to remain in their current school for the 2022-2023 school year. In order to do so, legal guardians will need to complete a continuation request form. A form will be sent to each eligible student via email in late April or early May. Forms will also be available on the district’s website at www.sdlancaster.org.

Forms should be completed, signed, and returned by June 30, 2022 through one of the following methods: Mail to: School District of Lancaster, Student Services, 251 S. Prince Street, 4th Floor, Lancaster, PA 17603; Email to: StudentServices@SDLancaster.org; Drop off at the main office of any School District of Lancaster building – Main office staff should scan and email all received forms to StudentServices@sdlancaster.org.

Below are building utilization rate calculations with and without grandfathering of current 4th and 7th graders students in their existing buildings. Note that this does not include freezing any siblings who may be in a lower grade.

Rezone All Grades

Freeze Grades 4 and 7

Yes. If your Grade 4 or Grade 7 student is eligible for transportation now and completes the continuation process to remain at his/her current school for one additional year, he/she will still be eligible for transportation.

Per Board Policy 206, the continuation request process is only open to current Grade 4 and Grade 7 students and not to their siblings. If a parent or guardian chooses to request continuation for his/her current Grade 4 or Grade 7 student, siblings would still need to attend their zoned school.

Per Board Policy 206, When a student moves between district attendance areas during the school year, they will have the option of remaining at the former school for the remainder of the school year if a written request is submitted within 10 days of the move.
Per Board Policy 200, Students moving out of the district may continue to attend the current schools for the duration of the school year if the move occurs after the completion of the second marking period.

The proposed plan would require all students to transition to their “school of residence,” which is the school assigned to them by their home address. Because the district has many buildings in close proximity to one another, there are times where your child’s school may be further than another building. In many other cases, students are being rezoned to a school that is closer than the school they currently attend.

We will work with our partners operating Pre-K (preschool) centers throughout the district to ensure they are aware of the proposed changes. Additionally, at the time of enrollment in the district, our Enrollment Technicians are notifying families of the potential change, and providing information for the current school and proposed school the child may attend in 2022-2023.

This is a rather complex process of studying parcel lines, roadways, and population density. In most cases the boundary lines follow roadways, as a tool for dividing boundaries based on busy streets and intersections. In a small number of cases, parcel lines were used to create boundaries in high density areas, where the population was too large to feed to one school building. Additional information, including approved and proposed residential construction, census data and live birth rates were factored into projected enrollment for future years.

Our team of dedicated principals are developing a transition plan to ensure all students are fully supported throughout their transition. Impacted students will be engaged a minimum of three (3) times prior to the start of the next school year, to include building tours, orientations, etc. Additionally, every elementary and middle school is preparing a welcoming video to introduce students and their families to their new building.

Communication is forthcoming from schools and the district regarding events to support students, families, teachers, and school communities through this transition.

By balancing class sizes throughout the district, we will be able to maintain an average general education class size of 25 students or less. As a budget priority, the District is actively working to maintain an average class size of 20 students for Kindergarten (K5), with a dedicated paraprofessional in each K5 classroom. Additionally, with our current staffing levels, we are targeting average class sizes of 22 students for all other grade levels.

The discontinuation of the Dual Language Immersion program at Wharton contributed to boundary shifts; however, this was only one factor involved. If you focus on the earlier maps created in December, the Wharton zone was expanding prior to the February board vote to eliminate the DLI Program.

If so, did you consider allowing those students a continuance so that …

(a) Wharton did not experience large-scale population decline?

The program currently serves grades 2-5 and was in process of having the lowest grade discontinued each year. This would have slowed the population loss initially; however, the low utilization would continue to build each year over the next 3 years.  If the District took this approach, we would still need to move the lines each year to fill the capacity.

(b) DLI students would not have to transition to their neighborhood school?

A change in the students’ school of enrollment would be driven by the ongoing policy work, related to Policy 206. Students attending school buildings outside of their school of residence is one factor leading to our class sizes being out of balance, which impacts many of our school buildings.

 (c) Smith Wade-El families would not have to be transported to a school further away from their neighborhood to a school they have never previously attended?

Walkability to schools was always a key objective in our study and was the option of choice by the Task Force. While more students in the current Smith-Wade-El zone would require bussing, the proposed boundaries in other areas of the district increase walkability. For instance, part of the current Price ES zone would walk through Washington ES’s zone to reach Price.

The District could take various measures to slow the approach, however, this would, in turn, cause a boundary shift each year for at least the next 5 years.  Our plan in alignment with Board Policy 206 would be to shift boundaries (as needed) every 5 years in lieu of an annual basis.

Equity is addressed by first providing the capacity and space for our educators and school leaders to have balanced class sizes.  With this first step, our educators can then have a more reasonable caseload of students to provide students with “what they need”.  Reducing class sizes in overcrowded schools improves students’ access to teacher time for additional academic support.  This is especially important for historically underperforming students.  Our data shows that our students of color underperform across academic areas.  Smaller class sizes will provide these students with more access to resources.

Equitable resource distribution will range from a variety of supports such as intervention time for literacy and math, differentiated instruction, social-emotional, gifted instruction, counselor intervention.  Primarily, using the Multi-Tiered System of Support for both instruction and social-emotional learning can be infused with more intentionality giving students what they need within balance school and class size.

In addition, other equity issues such as building infrastructure can be achieved by reducing enrollment capacity in order to plan for the future of our non-renovated buildings.  Our non-renovated buildings do not provide adequate ventilation, heating and cooling, instructional technology, and other safety infrastructure as our newer schools.  When we have to close schools due to heat, students miss instructional time which has a detrimental impact on student achievement.   If we do not redistribute our school enrollment we would overbuild schools in the future, creating a burden on our taxpayers both from a debt and inefficiency perspective.

If your child is in Grade 4 or Grade 7, he/she will be eligible to complete the continuation request process and remain at his/her current school for one additional year. If your child is not in Grade 4 or Grade 7, he/she will attend his/her home school next year.