Describes "optimization" computer programing to aid in school redistricting. Using diverse demographic data, the computer plots district boundaries to minimize children's walking distance and maximize safety, improve racial balance, and keep enrollment within school capacity. (TE)

Redrawing school attendance boundaries is one of the most sensitive tasks a school board faces. Factors to consider include the following: (1) life span of the change; (2) effective date; (3) racial balance; (4) resource equity; and (5) program, public, and financial impact. Outlines a process for developing redistricting plans. (MLF)

Considers some of the reasons for, and the advantages of, the movement towards school consolidation that has led to the disappearance of some 73,000 school districts in the last 25 years. (WM)

Describes the substantive changes made by Superintendent John Stanford in the Seattle public school system over the last two years. (LMI)

School governance has recently dominated Canadian provinces' political agendas. Every province has reduced the number of school boards and centralized decision making. This article summarizes school board and funding status in each province and territory. Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec have…

A comprehensive, field-tested plan for changing school attendance boundaries involves community-based committees that analyze the relevant data (with support from central office staff members) and develop the initial recommendations for the school board. Outlines a six-step process and lists some basic principles. (MLF)

Sacramento schools achieved a turnaround in three years, after a new board reassigned inept administrators and devised a High Standards, Great Results Program comprised of the Puzzle (core achievement beliefs, community/parent support, and participative management) and Vital Signs (goals for readiness, attendance, literacy, and graduation rates).…

According to an Ohio elementary principal who chaired a redistricting committee, establishing new school attendance boundaries can be frustrating. Despite good intentions, the nearly all-white, all-female committee worked harder to protect their individual neighborhoods than to achieve common goals. The process would have benefited from a more…

A group of volunteers formed a new school district in California, and the newly formed school board learned to leave management to the superintendent it had hired. (MLF)

The trend toward bigness and consolidation continues unabated, driven by political, economic, social, and demographic considerations, rather than extensive research attesting to small schools' educational benefits. School size influences social interaction and degree of student alienation. We need to reclaim the small school's sense of community,…

While visiting small town school districts across the country, two educational administration professors discovered that boards of education everywhere faced the same challenges and exercised considerable competence, conscientiousness, and civic responsibility. Chief concerns were trying economic circumstances, changing demography, and district…