Kent School District Board of Directors voted on February 10, 2021, to approve limited boundary changes and recommendations from the Kent School District staff to be implemented in the 2021-22 school year. These recommendations included only the boundary changes needed to open the new school being built in the Kent valley, River Ridge Elementary, which is scheduled to open in Fall 2021. The Final Boundary Review Report presented to the school board on January 27 included this recommendation under Finding 1; however, all proposed changes were voted down by the board at that meeting.  

The approved boundary changes will populate the new River Ridge Elementary School by adjusting boundaries to neighboring schools in the Kent Valley and on Kent East Hill.

Seven schools will have their boundaries altered by the approved changes:

• East Hill Elementary
• Kent Elementary
• Meadow Ridge Elementary
• Neely-O’Brien Elementary
• Panther Lake Elementary
• Scenic Hill Elementary
• Springbrook Elementary

Additionally, on February 10, 2021, the board approved the District moving forward with converting the current Kent Phoenix Academy/Kent Mountain View Academy building into a middle school to begin in the 2020-2021 school year. And for the District to examine educational programming equity, alignment, and continuum of services throughout the District next school year. All other proposed boundary changes brought forth to the community over the last several months in surveys, community meetings, and board presentations were voted down again, with no timeline of when they would be brought forth again to be discussed by the board. This means there are no current plans to move sixth-graders to middle school, to align school feeder patterns, or to adjust school boundaries to help balance enrollment outside of the schools impacted by the new elementary school.

More information and details will be sent to staff and families directly impacted by the approved boundary changes in the coming weeks as the approved changes begin to be implemented. One of the first steps will be notification, then registration information for the 2021-2022 school year, and information about the transfer process.

Learn more about the boundary study through updates, news, and answers to frequently asked questions.