In December 2022, the Ritenour School District hosted meetings at each elementary and middle school to seek feedback that will help the district to re-draw elementary and middle school attendance boundaries. Dozens of families and community members also completed an online survey to provide feedback. 

In-person and survey feedback are helping the district to develop planning parameters, which are characteristics that define a school attendance area. After discussing the potential planning parameters, families ranked their top priorities, which included:   

1. Provide equity in class size, resources and staffing
2. To the greatest extent possible, avoid student crossing identified “dangerous” streets
3. Eliminate divided apartment complexes among elementary schools so students living in these complexes attend one elementary school
4. Provide equal classroom sizes that are at, or below, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) standards
5. Eliminate crowding and balance enrollments by schools
6. Minimize travel/maximize safety in travel; assign students to the closest school possible and don’t divide subdivisions and neighborhoods

The parameters listed above were given to a demographer who will create a map with updated attendance areas based on the feedback.  

Ritenour will host an open house in February (at a date TBD) to share potential new school boundary maps and gather additional community feedback. The new maps are scheduled to be presented to the Ritenour Board of Education this spring for final approval.