Attendance Areas
Planning for the Future
The year was 1987. Ronald Reagan was President. Hayden Fry coached the Iowa football team. The Simpsons premiered on TV. Michael Jackson was at the top of the music charts. The Berlin Wall was still standing. A gallon of gas cost 89 cents.
And, Des Moines Public Schools did the last major change of its school attendance areas.
A lot of things change in a quarter of a century, both around the world and here at home.
To respond to change in order to better serve our students and meet the needs of our schools, Des Moines Public Schools has adopted new attendance areas for our secondary schools. The most significant and positive result of this change is that in almost every case, the attendance areas of the high schools and middle schools will now align, creating a more consistent “feeder system” throughout the district.
What does this mean for education? Several good things:
- The new attendance areas make it easier to accurately predict the number of incoming 6th grade students and 9th grade students at middle and high schools each year. This is a very important factor in determining the proper number of teachers and staff needed to provide a high quality education.
- School leadership in each feeder system can more effectively work with families, sharing meaningful information about interventions, special services, and more.
- Teachers and staff in each feeder system can better collaborate on a range of issues, from instructional matters to student behavior.
- School leadership in each feeder system can better coordinate to address and respond to issues of interest or concern to a particular neighborhood.
- Planning for special programs, from ELL to Gifted & Talented to Special Education, can also be completed more effectively.
For additional information – including maps, a schedule of public meetings, and frequent questions – please visit the items in the menu to the right.