Deer Creek schedules forums on redistricting

Deer Creek parents will have the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns about school redistricting during upcoming public forums.

The district will open a fifth elementary campus in the fall of 2014, the 52,000square-foot Spring Creek Elementary at NW 150 and N Rockwell.

To map out the details of the redistricting process, school board members formed a committee in September composed of two board members, nine parents and four administrators. The committee presented two plans for redistricting during a Jan. 14 school board meeting. Both plans would send elementary students from Deer Creek and Rose Union to the new Spring Creek campus, and both would shrink Grove Valley’s territory to expand enrollment at Prairie Vale.

Plan A would keep 82 percent of students at their current campuses. Plan B would keep 78 percent of students at their current schools.

Board member Jacob Mays said the board is expected to approve one of the plans during its Feb. 11 meeting.

The board has scheduled two public forums for parents to speak on the issue, the first of which is Thursday at Church of the Servant, 14343 N MacArthur Blvd. The forum will run from 6:30 to 8 p.m. and will allow each speaker three minutes. Speakers must submit a form when they arrive.

The same rules will apply at the second meeting, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Coffee Creek Baptist Church, 1650 Coffee Creek Road.

Mays, one of the two board members on the redistricting committee, said the process has been mainly concerned with growth and development in the area while affecting students as little as possible. Mays said there has been little feedback from parents compared to the 2009 redistricting process but said he hopes that will change with the public forums.

“We hope we find good input,” he said. “We want to seek parent input. And people want to know what things are being done. We’re going to listen to feedback and if there’s anything that needs to be done, we’ll take it into consideration.”