Over the past 20 years, the Town of Danvers has seen stable enrollment at all five elementary schools. Recently, development has occurred on the north side of town, within the Ivan G. Smith School area. Therefore, we have seen a natural increase in enrollment for the Ivan G. Smith School, including the need for an additional kindergarten classroom in 2018 to 2019.
In October of 2016, when the Town of Danvers and the MSBA came to an agreement on the certified enrollment for the Ivan G. Smith project, this projected enrollment number was significantly higher than the current enrollment at the Ivan G. Smith School. Since October 2016, the District has been working collaboratively with local boards as well as our architect and owner's project manager to look at enrollments and districting across our five elementary schools.
Prior to the beginning of the Ivan G. Smith project, the District had two flex zones. Students residing in these designated flex zones attend one of three elementary schools in town, based on enrollment numbers. Over the course of the 2017 to 2018 school year, the District gathered data from multiple sources. This data included information on all current students in the district and records of all births since September 2013 (based on street).
In conjunction with the District, Tappe Architects imported this data into a dynamic GIS system that allows the District to see where students will be residing as they enter kindergarten over the next 5 years. The District is currently using this mapping tool to further analyze and identify additional flex zones for the District and, if needed, possible redistricting.
Prior to the 2019-2020 kindergarten parent orientation (in April 2019), we plan to have the process complete.