This is the report I’ve been waiting for.

Early this year, when the city commission took up the issue of annexation to a packed house at city hall, the main concern that current residents voiced was in regard to accommodating an additional 500 students into an already crowded school system. The commission decided in that meeting that they needed to ask the superintendent/school board to look closely at the issue before the annexation initiative went any further.

Well, CDS finally has its report and its up on their website. Just like many previous school reports, this one was produced by Rosser. There’s a lot of good data in it and I urge every resident concerned about school capacity to take a look, but I will try to sum up.

From what I can deduce, if the city were to annex the entire proposed area, the real strain on the school system would be at the elementary level (K-3 & 4-5). I’ve heard some say that DHS is already “at capacity” but these charts don’t show that (see page 23 of the presentation). Even with annexation there still seems to be enough room at Renfroe and DHS. Also, its worth noting that even without annexation, Glennwood will still be over capacity by 2010.

As a result, the seven options given in this report have to do with accommodating these additional students in the lower grades. (Full details of these options can be found on pages 24-27 of the report.)

Option I – Move 5th graders to Renfroe and open four K-4 schools (Oakhurst, Clairemont, Winnona Park, Glennwood)

Option II – Move 4th and 5th graders to Renfroe and open four K-3 schools (same as above)

Option III – Open Westchester as a 4/5 academy (this doesn’t deal with the K-3 issue)

Option IV – Split 4/5 into two buildings and add 3rd graders to the mix. K-3 schools become K-2.

Option V – Make Glennwood K-5 and have four K-5 schools

Option VI – Open Westchester as “choice school” with K-5 open enrollment

Option VII – Open Westchester, have five K-4 schools (Oakhurst, Clairemont, Winnona Park, Glennwood) and move 5th graders to Renfroe.

As I said, check out the full presentation for more detail. With each option, the report also details potential positives and negatives that go along with it.

The report also states that the city will begin a PR campaign regarding annexation this summer and that support “for” and “against” annexation is evenly split at 45% with 10% undecided among residents. (It doesn’t specify whether that’s in the annexation area or within the current city limits though). Additionally, the earliest date for annexation would be School Year 2009/2010. (All of page 21)

The last pages gives next steps, which include many meetings and using GPS mapping to give CDS a more precise visual of where students in the annexation areas are coming from, down to the street level.