Chaska finding it's hard to please everybody

Breakups are tough.

For decades in the Chaska School District, it didn't matter if a family bought a home in Carver, Chaska, Victoria or Chanhassen -- everyone rallied behind the Chaska High School Hawks.

But beginning in fall 2009, that unity will be tested as the fast-growing eastern Carver County district opens a second high school and a third middle school. Some residents are already complaining about impending boundary changes and asking if the district will allow intra-district transfers.

"One of the blessings of a growing district is you can do things that declining districts can't. One of the curses is that you can't tell where people will buy houses," Superintendent David Jennings told parents recently. "We don't do this to screw with people."

Chaska's proposed boundary changes would establish city-based high school attendance zones, change the feeder-school program for the district's middle school buildings, and move about 300 elementary-school children, or 8 percent of the district's elementary population.

"We'd heard from a lot of people that their priority was to keep cities together," said Nancy Kracke, Chaska's community relations director. The current boundary proposal "accommodates that request and keeps enrollment balanced between the two schools."

Under the current proposal, Chaska residents would attend Chaska High School and students from Carver, Chanhassen and Victoria would attend Chanhassen High. The schools will be about 2 miles apart, Kracke said.

Chaska school board members could vote on the proposal on Thursday or on April 24. Board members also will hear recommendations on allowing transfers between schools.

A nearby district's experience

Although most metro-area districts are grappling with declining enrollment, Chaska isn't the only community that's had to deal with contentious school-boundary changes resulting from growth.

"We studied one high school versus two high schools for years," said Linda Swanson, a spokeswoman for the Lakeville School District. Like Chaska, "Lakeville was a small town that grew into a suburb. But in hindsight, it was a good decision."

Lakeville South High School opened in fall 2005. The district didn't allow students to transfer between the high schools for two school years and limited open enrollment.

"In those first two years, it was important to maintain the integrity of the boundary decision," Swanson said. "Change is really difficult for everyone, but the fear was that students would transfer to maintain friendships or to play on another team."

Today, Lakeville North and Lakeville South high schools each serve about 1,700 students. Swanson doubts that enrollment would have been as balanced if the district had allowed transfers when the new school opened.

More growing pains

In Chaska, the conversion of Pioneer Ridge Freshmen Center into Pioneer Ridge Middle School means the district also must adjust which students attend which middle schools.

Chaska and Chanhassen Elementary School students will attend Pioneer Ridge; they currently attend Chaska Middle School East and Chaska Middle School West. All three middle schools will serve students in both high school attendance areas. District officials have not yet decided whether they'll grandfather in eighth-graders to their current middle schools.

Kracke said district officials realize boundary changes are difficult for many families. However, she said the new elementary boundaries are designed to stay in place for three to four years and the high school boundaries should remain in place indefinitely.

"The quicker we can make these decisions the better," Kracke said. "But we don't want to move so fast that we don't take what residents are saying to us into consideration."

Patrice Relerford • 612-673-4395