APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Boundaries for the under-construction Sandy Slope Elementary School in Appleton are being discussed.
The Appleton Area School District hosted the first of two listening sessions for the community Wednesday night.
Superintendent Greg Hartjes said they’ve already decided three sides of the boundary, but a fourth is proving difficult.
“It’s the western boundary that we’re trying to make a really good decision, so that we don’t put a board in a situation 10 years from now, 15 years from now, where they have to change it,” he said.
The listening session revealed three potential boundary maps to discuss.
View the boundary proposals on the AASD website
They propose various changes for attendance rates at Ferber Elementary School, which will share a border with Sandy Slope.
One of the three proposed boundaries for the elementary school does not include Thrivent’s new development in Appleton, which aims to add approximately 2,200 homes to the nearly 600-acre property.
Hartjes told FOX 11 Thrivent wasn’t considered when they first began plans for the school, but now it presents a new hurdle.
That property is maybe five to 10 years out before it is going to be developed, but we’re building a school that is going to be used for 50 to 100 years, so we just want to make a good decision at this point.
Hartjes said with the Thrivent property, Sandy Slope may hit capacity sooner than they had planned for. “The real challenge is, we don’t want to put a family in a difficult situation around where they want to attend school, and where maybe they thought they were going to be able to attend school.”
Thrivent tells us that it’s not involved in the boundary selection for the district, saying:
We trust the school board to set the boundaries most appropriate for all students as they would with any new development in the area.”
“It’s just a proposal. We don’t know what that’s going to look like,” Hartjes added. “We don’t necessarily think we want to set boundaries in that area right now.”
Hartjes said it’s likely they leave Thrivent in the Sandy Slope boundary, but welcome the opinions of community members.
The next listening session will be at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 21 at Ferber Elementary School.
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