The invisible lines drawn around county that say where students go to school are set to be redrawn for the 2010-2011 school year.

“Per your request,” Assistant Superintendent for Operations Jim Suber told board members, “we are in the planning stages for a redistricting study for the district.”

As the district rounds out the final bit of its $77.4 million building project approved in 2005, the school board wants to best fill space opened by new school construction as the county population fluctuates.

District consultants The Caldwell Group, McKibben Demographic Research and Cropper Geographic Information Systems are in the beginning stages of the county study. The groups will look at county characteristics like growth projection and student enrollment before considering new attendance boundaries.

“The study should be completed by the end of the school year and the final presentation for approval at the July board meeting,” said Suber.

One of the main reasons (for the work) is to fully utilize the additional space opened up at the new construction areas, said Suber.

For the demographic study, the consultants are also working with “a representative sample of all attendance areas in the school district,” he says.

That sample of approximately 20 people includes parents, school representatives, business leaders, clergy, members of parent teacher organizations and school improvement councils, as well as community members. The citizen group, formally named the Redistricting Steering Committee, will be behind the wheel of the restructuring.

Other guides they’ll use to draw a better attendance map:

• Where possible, children should be assigned to the nearest school to minimize travel time and promote the concept of neighborhood schools.

• Optimally, the plan would stick to “pure feeder zones,” meaning elementary schools are not split between middle schools, and middle school not split between high schools.

• Consider attendance boundaries to minimize the number of students that are affected through the redistricting.

• Try not to split neighborhoods into different attendance zones.

• Define boundaries using main geographical features like main roads, highways and things of that nature, when possible.

“This criteria will be very important,” said Suber.

Throughout the redistricting process, Suber says the district will seek input and feedback from the community.

The final drafts of the demographic and redistricting study will be shared through steering committee meetings and a community forum process.

Board member Jody Hamm asked if the study would put dots on a map that represented where children live, as past studies showed.

“More advanced than that, it will be on the computer with a (geographic information system). A click of the mouse will show attendance areas and the number of students,” said Suber. “It’s going to be amazing what they can do.”