BAKERFIELD, Calif. — The Bakersfield City School District is considering new recommendations surrounding policies and procedures at Downtown Elementary School.
The school was established in 1997 to serve students whose parents work in the downtown area. Assistant Superintendent, Mark Luque says the current policies are decades old and need to be looked at as the downtown area continues to grow.
The recommendations surround four criteria:
1. Grade Span Configuration. Currently the school serves K-8 grade.
2. Enrollment Criteria
3. Current Students currently enrolled
4. Implementation timeline
BCSD recommends that the Downtown school continue to serve the community as a K-8 grade school. They say there are five enrollment criteria priorities to consider going forward:
1. Incoming siblings of currently enrolled students and school site employees.
2. Neighborhood residents, with no employment in the Designated Downtown Business Area required.
Downtown Business Area boundary defined as, West to F Street, East to Union Avenue, North to 24th Street and South to Truxtun Avenue.
3. A student whose parent resides with the District's attendance boundaries, works within the downtown business area and who needs daycare.
4. A student whose parent works within the designated downtown business area, resides outside of the District attendance boundaries and who needs daycare.
5. All others who have established residency based upon employment anywhere in the District's boundaries regardless of daycare needs.
BCSD says the updated policy language would take effect beginning in the 2021-2022 school year and thereafter. Tonight's presentation called for no action from the school board. The next meeting will be December 17, 2019.
