A Lindbergh Schools committee is set to begin work this week on redrawing elementary-school and middle-school boundaries for the 2017-2018 school year.
The Boundary Committee, comprised of parents, community members and administrators, is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, in the Professional Development Rooms at the Administration Building, 4900 S. Lindbergh Blvd. Committee members represent every school and were recommended by building principals and parent leaders.
The redistricting is being done as a result of the district’s aggressive enrollment growth and in preparation for the opening of Dressel Elementary School in the fall. Construction of the new elementary school, which will have a capacity of 650 students, began in October 2015 and will be completed for the start of the coming school year.
Boundary Committee members are charged with developing criteria for new elementary- and middle-school boundaries and formulating options for the new boundaries for public feedback next month.
As proposed, the committee will complete its work and submit the proposed new boundaries to the Board of Education in March. The district’s goal is to notify parents and students about school placement by the end of the month.
New elementary- and middle-school boundaries last went into effect in Lindbergh for the 2011-2012 school year.
A district committee redrew elementary-school boundaries and established new middle-school boundaries. The new boundaries were necessitated by the opening of Concord Elementary School and converting the former Truman Elementary School back to a middle school.
Superintendent Jim Simpson told the Call that the Boundary Committee’s work will be much more extensive than it was for the last redistricting.
“It’s really going to be a big thing. It’s going to affect really over a thousand families, well over a thousand families,” he said.
To fund the construction of Dressel Elementary, district voters approved a $34 million bond issue in April 2014. Besides the new elementary school, Proposition G — for Growth — is funding some critical needs at Lindbergh High School to accommodate enrollment growth there.
In June 2015, the Board of Education awarded a $21,855,000 contract to TriCo Inc. Commercial for construction of the new state-of-the-art, 99,116-square-foot elementary school.
The district purchased the 10-acre Dressel site 10255 Musick Road in 2011 for $1.94 million, and later demolished the existing building to make room for the new school.
Sappington Elementary School Principal Craig Hamby will serve as principal of Dressel Elementary School when it opens. Sappington is currently the district’s largest elementary, with a total of 773 students enrolled in kindergarten through fifth grade. Sappington fifth-graders are attending Sperreng Middle School for one year because of space limitations.
