When Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) school officials saw Deer Creek Elementary in Wayne Township coming online in August of 2022, it was clear that school boundaries would need adjustment.  Since the plan was to impact the fewest number of students possible, no one wanted to call it redistricting.

The term being used for this process is “Redefining Boundaries.”  Tuesday night, top school officials spoke before about 40 individuals at HSE High Schools about the three scenarios produced by an internal school group.

Only one of the 3 scenarios (C) accomplishes the stated goal of relieving Southeastern Elementary of its overcrowding problem.  Scenarios A or B take students from other elementary buildings.

Administrators say they want Deer Creek to be at 80% capacity when opening in 2022 (580 students).  The Deer Creek building can take 725 in the classrooms.  The extra Deer Creek capacity is to allow for projected future growth in the area.

Deer Creek is set to replace Durbin Elementary, but when all Durbin students (345) move to Deer Creek, that only partially fills Deer Creek.

Limiting the boundary adjustments to a few schools leaves open the option of a full HSE Schools redistricting in the coming years.  According to demographic experts the school corporation has consulted, the pandemic has skewed the available data normally used for a full redistricting project.

The school board will conduct work sessions, have a public meeting on the options available, with an expected recommendation from Superintendent Yvonne Stokes ready for the school board December 8 this year.  School officials used a phone app and written documents for those attending the Tuesday meeting to make comments and administrators were available to answer questions from the public.

You can see the presentation school officials made at the Tuesday session at this link.