It will be crowded at Hillcrest School when the new year begins next week, but that's what many parents and teachers wanted.
About 440 students are expected to attend Hillcrest when school starts this week. The main school building's capacity is 300. Six portables dot the campus, including a new one added this summer.
"While portables are not ideal, we'll make it work this year," Principal Tammy Becker said.
Boundary changes proposed earlier this year could have relieved overcrowding at the school, but parents and teachers battled against the move, and the school board opted to nix the plan.
Instead, the district moved an additional double-wide portable classroom to the school's campus. Installation cost $26,700, and the school will spend one more year under tight conditions.
"Everybody realizes we're in a sort of holding pattern," said Nils Gore, parent of a Hillcrest student and former chairman of the school's site council. "Following this year, things are going to have to change over there."
As the district's only site catering to children who speak languages other than English, Hillcrest buses in students from across the district.
Its population has grown in recent years, leading to space problems.
"Hillcrest is pretty much maxed (in terms of) physical space," Becker said.
The community battled the boundary change because they said it would take away too many native English speakers and create too great of an imbalance of native English speakers and English language learners.
"Parents thought it would disrupt the balance of the school," Gore said.
Cordley School in 2006 will open a second site for students who are learning English.
Becker said the two schools are working together to prepare for that change. They have not yet established a plan for how to transfer students to Cordley, she said.
And there is long-term planning, Becker said.
"There's very much a possibility that down the road there could be a third site (for English Language Learners)," she said.
But for the next school year, the school will cope with a high number of students.
"For one year, it may be the best solution," Gore said.
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