The public can comment online starting Dec. 20 on proposed attendance 
area boundary changes developed for Gentry and Jefferson middle schools 
and a new elementary school in east Columbia.
Separate committees made up of teachers, school officials, parents and 
community members came up with tentative versions of the proposals 
Thursday: one scenario for the elementary school and two for the middle 
schools.
The middle school adjustment is designed to relieve crowding at Gentry 
Middle School. 
Enrollment in late September was 868, but the school’s capacity, includ-
ing 13 classroom trailers, is 871.
The adjustments will affect Gentry and Jefferson, which are feeder 
schools for Rock Bridge High School. Jefferson had 597 students in late
 September. Officials have said 659 was the building’s capacity, but 
Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Peter Stiepleman said after 
reviewing the building and classroom space with the architect, 
enrollment there can go as high as 725.
“We can make 725 work,” he said. “Enrollments and classroom spaces 
at secondary” schools “are different than elementary” schools.
Committee member Kim Fallis, whose daughter is an eighth-grader at 
Gentry, said the committee members tried to keep the middle school 
students with their peers from elementary schools. She said the comm-
ittee also did not want to create a crowding problem at Jefferson.
“The ultimate goal is to resolve the crowding problem for Gentry 
until a new middle school can be built,” Fallis said.
That’s a few years out, at the earliest. Voters in April approved a 
bond issue that includes money to buy land and design a new middle 
school in south Columbia. A bond issue to build the school is two years 
away, with construction two years after that, if voters were to approve it.
An elementary committee worked out a tentative scenario for the 
new elementary school in the Vineyards subdivision in east Columbia. 
When it opens in August, the school will replace Cedar Ridge Elemen-
tary School.The committee made adjustments to the attendance 
areas for Cedar Ridge, Benton, Lee Expressive Arts, New Haven, Rock 
Bridge and Shepard Boulevard elementary schools. Both committees 
worked with Preston Smith, a consultant from Blue Springs. “We don’t 
want to open any of these new schools at capacity, because they’re in 
areas that are going to grow,” said Ben Tilley, CPS assistant superintendent 
for elementary education.
Borders were adjusted to try to equalize the percentage of students receiv-
ing free or reduced-price meals. Terra Merriweather-Schultz, a Benton 
parent, said Benton always has had a high percentage of students qualify-
ing for free and reduced-price meals, but all children receive the same educa-
tion. “They’re kids, and they can adjust,” she said.
The tentative elementary scenario includes extending the southern 
boundary of Lee to Grindstone Parkway. The new school will include some 
of the territory now in the New Haven attendance area. Some of the Rock 
Bridge Elementary School area also was moved to New Haven.
The committees will continue to review the scenarios in shared documents 
online before they are posted to the CPS website Dec. 20. The public will be 
able to offer comments about the scenarios until Jan. 12, when the committees 
would meet again. If the committees make any changes on Jan. 12, the public 
will have another chance to weigh in from Jan. 13 to Feb. 2. There also might 
be public forums at the schools between Jan. 13 and Feb. 2.
The Columbia Board of Education is scheduled to take action on the recommen-
dations at its Feb. 13 meeting.
Stiepleman said the process has been condensed.
“The kids need to know where they’re going to school next year,” he said.