The home zones for two Crestview elementary schools might change soon.
The Okaloosa County School Board on Monday will consider whether to advertise which students who live east of Garden City Road and north of the Shoal River and Poverty Creek Road attend a different school.
If approved, 97 kindergarten through fourth grade students would see their zoned school change from Bob Sikes Elementary to Walker Elementary for the 2014-15 school year, according to Ryan Gore, the school district’s program director of information systems.
“We’re looking down the road here, trying to be as proactive as possible,” Assistant Superintendent Nick Kootsouradis said Thursday during a presentation to the School Board.
District officials looked at the growth potential of subdivisions in both areas. They discovered Bob Sikes, which had 880 students enrolled in October and little room for more portable classrooms, was likely to see even more students.
“If this continues on this trend, we’re going to be a critical point where we don’t have anywhere to put students,” Gore said.
Waivers to continue at Bob Sikes would be granted to those 97 students already enrolled there, but parents would have to drive them to and from school because buses would only run for Walker in that area.
In addition to moving students, the district also might decide to create waiver-only kindergarten and first-grade classes at the Southside Center to address the growth in all Crestview elementary schools.
Right now, the former elementary school only has voluntary pre-kindergarten and pre-kindergarten disability students, and has eight open classrooms.
The district would also look more closely at all zoning waivers and set up portables at Walker if necessary.
School Board members will decide Monday whether to advertise the multifaceted proposal. If they do, a public hearing will be scheduled and the issue likely will come up for a final vote in late January or early February.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Katie Tammen at 850-315-4440 or ktammen@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieTnwfdn.
