For more information, contact: Jan. 23, 2002
Mickey Schoonover
Director of School-Community Relations
(314) 213-8025
Dr. Hugh Kinney, Superintendent
(314) 213-8001

Pattonville board approves redistricting plan

The Board of Education of the Pattonville School District on Jan. 22 approved a recommendation made by a parent committee for redistricting Pattonville’s elementary attendance boundaries. The changes will take affect next school year.

Pattonville had to redraw its attendance boundaries this year due to the opening of a new elementary school next fall in St. Ann. The new school will serve as a replacement for Carrollton and Carrollton Oaks elementary schools, both of which have been bought as part of Lambert Airport’s expansion plan. The airport is providing the funds to build the new school.

After developing and considering nine different redistricting plans, the Pattonville Parent Redistricting Committee recommended to the board a plan that moved the least amount of students. The approved plan moves all of Carrollton and Carrollton Oaks students, as well as approximately 80 elementary students from the current attendance areas of the Bridgeway Elementary and Briar Crest Accelerated School attendance areas
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The committee – made up of 20 parents (as well as parent alternates) from throughout the district -– met throughout the summer and fall to develop a recommendation for new attendance boundaries. The committee presented its proposed plan to the board on Jan. 8.

“I want to commend and thank the Parent Redistricting Committee for its work,” said Pattonville Board President Kathy Fitzgerald. “These parents volunteered numerous hours of their time and took on a very difficult and emotional task. I believe they did their work focused on doing what was best for all the children of Pattonville, while also keeping in mind the impact their work would have on hundreds of individual children moving to a new school.”

Specifics of the approved plan are as follows:

1. The plan moves approximately 80 students at the elementary level (not counting Carrollton and Carrollton Oaks children) and 15 middle school students. This represents less than 1.5 percent of Pattonville’s student population.

2. All of Carrollton and Carrollton Oaks will attend the new school, along with small sections of the current Bridgeway and Briar Crest attendance areas. All other elementary attendance areas will remain the same.

3. The Bridgeway section that will go to the new school is bordered by St. Charles Rock Road to the north, Hellebusch Park on the west, Old St. Charles Road on the south and Lindbergh Boulevard on the east. The Briar Crest section going to the new school is bordered by St. Charles Rock Road on the north, Lindbergh Boulevard and a section of Adie Road (between Lee Lane and St. Henry Lane) on the west, Old St. Charles Road and St. Henry Lane on the south and the school district boundary with the Ritenour School District on the east. The exception is Imperial Gardens Drive, which will continue going to Briar Crest.

4. The current elementary-to-middle school feeder system will remain unchanged. Briar Crest, Rose Acres and the new elementary school will attend Holman, while Bridgeway, Parkwood and Willow Brook will continue to attend Pattonville Heights.

5. The plan moves a portion of Essex Avenue (11361 to 11450) currently in the Bridgeway attendance area to Parkwood. This does not involve students changing schools, since students at these addresses currently attend Parkwood.

6. Adjustments were made to Bridgeway’s attendance area to include a portion of Smiley Avenue between Old St. Charles Rock Road and Terry Avenue. Students in this area currently receive bus service to Bridgeway.

7. The plan includes a projected number of additional classrooms that will be available at each school, assuming the continued use of modular classrooms.

The board also approved an amendment to the committee’s recommendation that would give current Bridgeway and Briar Crest students affected by the boundary changes first priority under the district’s exceptional attendance policy. Under the policy, parents can apply for their children to attend a school outside their attendance area if the child is in good standing (no academic, attendance or discipline concerns), there is adequate space in the receiving school and parents provide their own transportation.
Maps of the new attendance boundaries can be viewed by going to Pattonville’s web site at www.psdr3.org and looking under “Recent News and Information.”