The prospect of nearly doubling Orchard Elementary School's enrollment to 600 and switching to a year-round schedule sparked ire among parents who prize the small, serene campus and boast that the principal knows every child by their first name. If the school board adopts the report's recommendation to increase Orchard's enrollment, about 100 students would come from Markham Elementary school and another 200 from nearby Browns Valley Elementary School. Located in the midst of sprawling new neighborhoods that continue to grow, Browns Valley has ballooned to nearly 1,100 students since it was built in 1991. Portables have munched away at playgrounds at the year-round campus. Parents often show up in the office to sign their children up for school only to be turned away because there is no room in their children's grade.
Traffic jams clog the streets daily when parents drop off and pick up their children.
That would ease crowding at Callison and Cooper elementary schools. Eventually, the city's growth will call for three new elementary schools, a middle school, a high school, another continuation high school and a smaller magnet high school. It will take painstaking study, copious public commentary, a lot of give and take and millions of dollars from the state, developers and local taxpayers to preempt a facilities crisis, officials say. Solutions won't please everyone, said Trustee Pat Mylott, who sat on the task force that drew up the report. The first of several public forums on the master plan is set for Thursday.