Ogden Newspaper photo by Ron Agnir Dr. Bondy Shay Gibson, superintendent of the Jefferson County School system, reviews recommendation options to the 2017-18 Jefferson County redistricting plans at the board of education meeting on Monday.

Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Dr. Bondy Shay Gibson offered up a revised redistricting plan at the Board of Education meeting Monday night, which she says reduces the number of students to be relocated to 225 from the originally proposed 830.

In a roughly 25-minute presentation, Gibson outlined how the district’s elementary, middle and high school student count will drop under the revised plan.

Under the new plan, no elementary school children will be need to be relocated, while 171 middle and 54 high school students would be shifted in the 2017-18 school year, Gibson said.

The original plan called for shifting 341 elementary school students, 210 middle school students and 279 high school students to locations different from the one the student would be assigned under the district’s current geographically based plan.

The new plan also eliminates the need to move Shepherdstown Elementary School’s 5th grade class to Shepherdstown Middle School by relocating the district’s pre-school program to two other schools, Gibson said.

Gibson said the trade off to reduce the relocation numbers will be to require several district schools to operate at 85-to-90 percent student capacity over the next four years.

In addition, schools designated at capacity will not accept new transfer students.

Under the plan, at the end of four years, Jefferson High School will be at 75 percent capacity with 1,231 students and Washington High School will be at 85 percent capacity with 1,403 students, Gibson said.

First unveiled at the Nov. 29 BOE meeting, the plan has undergone several revisions and iterations, based both on public feedback at four board meetings and online, as well as redistricting conditions made by BOE members.

“It was very important to engage in an iterative process,” Gibson said. “Part of this process was to go through it as a community.”

Under the plan, at the end of four years, Jefferson High School will be at 75 percent capacity with 1,231 students and Washington High School will be at 85 percent capacity with 1,403 students, Gibson said.

Gibson said at one point in the future the district will have no choice but to build a new school.

The revised plan also calls for creating a redistricting committee in even numbered school years to re-evaluate the district’s overall growth status.

“Moving forward, this will be a less painful process if we accept the fact that we are a growing community,” Gibson said.

BOE President Scott Sudduth said the board plans to vote on a final redistricting plan at its Feb. 13 meeting.

“We would like to take action at the next board meeting,” Sudduth said.

Jefferson County residents can provide comment on the revised plan by posting at the school district website.