 New District 11 boundaries for the 2013-14 school year... Elementary schools: Jackson is currently west of I-25 but will straddle the interstate in 2013-14. Other elementaries with expanding boundaries from two closures are also shown in white with thick borders. Westside Pioneer photo
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The D-11 Board of Education approved the new lines at its meeting Feb. 27. They will take effect with the start of the 2013-14 school year.
Based on the number of students in its enlarged attendance area, Jackson will go from its current enrollment of 296 students to 409, putting it at 93 percent of full utilization.
Coronado will rise from 1,317 to 1,416 students, putting its utilization at 76 percent.
Neither school will need building additions, but Jackson will keep its four portables, according to staff information at the meeting.
These boundary changes are the result of the planned closures of Lincoln Elementary and Wasson High (approved by the board Feb. 6), as part of a district focus this year on underutilized school buildings. Also closing will be Bates Elementary, although that will not directly affect Westside attendance areas.
A school's attendance area is defined by the district. Students in the area are assigned to that school. They are also eligible for busing, depending on how far from it they live. How-ever, because D-11 allows school choice, students can permit into any school that has space.
Based on attendance areas, Jackson will pick up more than half of the 180 students who are now attending Lincoln. Much of that school's attendance area borders Jackson's, except that they are on opposite sides of I-25.
Because of the interstate, all the Lincoln students going to Jackson will be eligible for busing, D-11 officials have said.
The Lincoln infusion evidently will not change Jackson's status as a Title 1 school (eligible for extra funding because 75 percent or more students qualify for free or reduced lunches). School data shows that in the 2011-12 school year, 92 percent of Lincoln's students qualified in that way.
Coronado will continue to be the flagship high school for almost all of D-11 west of I-25, but it will now have a contiguous area across the the district north of Fillmore Street and west of Union Boulevard.
A complication is that the change will take away Coronado's current attendance-area “island” at the north end of the district east of Union Boulevard. That area will be assigned to Doherty High, which is geographically more than twice as close. However, island undergraduates who want to attend Coronado next fall will be grandfathered and eligible for busing, school officials have agreed.
 New District 11 boundaries for the 2013-14 school year... High schools: Coronado's attendance area will become contiguous, netting more overall area north and east of I-25 than it has now. Westside Pioneer photo
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According to board member Elaine Naleski, eliminating Coronado's islands (a second one east of I-25 will become part of the school's new contiguous area) was an issue that helped lead to the overall utilization effort.
Westside Pioneer article