EL Schools Propose Moving Some Pinecrest, Glencairn Students for Fall 2019

East Lansing Schools Superintendent Dori Leyko announced Monday night her plan to begin “right-sizing” the District’s elementary schools by keeping a group of current Glencairn students at Red Cedar and moving current Pinecrest students to the new Glencairn building next fall.

Among the 70 current Glencairn students to remain at Red Cedar are 26 students residing in Spartan Village, 5 in the Ivanhoe neighborhood, 12 in the Flowerpot neighborhood and 27 in the new MSU housing complex 1855.

Currently there are 299 students at Glencairn which is close to the ideal population of 290-300 students expected for each of the five newly constructed elementary schools.

But the removal of 70 students means Glencairn needs to increase their population. Meanwhile, neighboring Pinecrest currently has 351 students which is too many to return to the new school when it is completed in 2020.

So Leyko proposes moving 58 current K-4 students from Pinecrest to Glencairn, following a boundary of Woodingham Street. All students on both sides of Woodingham and neighborhoods to the south would be moved into Glencairn next fall. This includes 16 kindergarteners, 10 first graders, 16 second graders, 8 third graders and 8 fourth graders.

She would prefer to move them directly to Glencairn next year instead of shifting them to Red Cedar while Pinecrest is demolished and rebuilt and then back to either Pinecrest or Glencairn the next year.

“We would like to mitigate the number of physical moves,” Leyko said.

Above: maps of proposed boundary shifts used at Monday night's meeting

Lekyo is offering current fourth graders at both Glencairn and Pinecrest the option to be “grandfathered in” and stay with their student cohort with the District providing transportation for the 2019-2020 school year.

Other families may remain with their current schools by applying through the District’s permeable boundaries request process to move to another school in the District. Their requests are not guaranteed to be approved, and if they are approved the families would need to provide transportation.

The decision whether staff will be moving with their current schools also remains unknown at this time, Leyko said after the meeting. She said the District will be surveying all of the teachers and administrators and hoping to accommodate as many staff requests as possible. But that may mean that teaching teams and administrative staff will be placed in different buildings.

The Board is expected to vote on the proposal at the Dec. 10 Board meeting. Meanwhile, families are asked to provide their feedback to Leyko and the Board during the November 12 and 26 meetings.

While there was a full room during Leyko’s presentation, there were no public comments relating to the boundary changes.

Boardmembers expressed their support and appreciation for Leyko’s plan.

“I’ve dreaded this and was pleasantly surprised,” said Board Trustee Nichole Martin. “I would continue to support making those decisions as you are ‘righting’ the buildings so the community can understand the thoughtfulness of the process.”

Leyko said this is likely only the first phase of the boundary changes. She anticipates moving boundaries again for Donley, Whitehills and Marble but is waiting to see the results of a new housing project in Walnut Hills and how it impacts enrollment.