Polk families make their picks

CEDAR RAPIDS - The bulk of students who now attend Polk Elementary School won't have far to travel next year after Polk closes.

Families served by the school at 1500 B Ave. NEwere given a choice of 15 other buildings within the district to attend for the 2012-2013 academic year. Out of those 182 students, 45 will go to Arthur Elementary, the district said Monday. Thirty-seven of them elected to attend Arthur, while the other eight were assigned there by the district.

Arthur, one of three schools to absorb Polk's boundaries, is relatively close - about 1.5 miles away. Its current enrollment of 345 is near the building's official capacity of 400.

Mary Ellen Maske, the school system's executive administrator for primary education, said district officials did not anticipate a problem with capacity at Arthur and were working to make sure all the schools were prepared for the additional students.

Other popular transfer schools included Johnson Elementary, 32 students; Taylor Elementary, 29 students; Garfield Elementary, 28 students; and Grant Wood Elementary, 11 students. Johnson and Garfield are the other schools that will absorb Polk's attendance boundaries.

Taylor, meanwhile, is the only other building in the district to use a modified year-round calendar like Polk's, and all of the students moving there come from families that specifically chose the school.

The remaining 22 students are split among 10 other buildings, with no individual school receiving more than five. The families of 15 students have indicated they are moving before the start of the academic year.

School

Choice School Made by Family

Assigned to School(no response)

Total

Arthur

37

8

45

Cleveland

2

2

Coolidge

2

1

3

Erskine

5

5

Garfield

21

7

28

Grant

1

2

3

Grant Wood

9

2

11

Harrison

1

1

Hoover

2

2

Jackson

1

1

Johnson

16

16

32

Kenwood

1

1

Pierce

1

1

Taylor

29

29

Wright

3

3

Moved

15

15

Total

128

54

182