'Change Is Not Fun:' Jenks Parents React To School Redistricting Plans

Some Jenks students will change where they go to school next year. This comes after the district emailed parents that attendance zones had changed.  

The changes will be implemented in the 2025-2026 school year. The district says it will affect just under 5% of all students.

Change isn't always easy.

"Change is not fun, especially for your kids," said Kelsey Graham. But for her and her son, it was something they were willing to do.

"I'm okay with the change; we were just like, what the heck, we had no idea anything was going to happen," Graham said. 

For the 2024-2025 school year, her son went to Jenks West Elementary. After the announcement from the district on November 11th, 2024, he would move to Jenks Northwest Elementary for the 2025-2026 school year.

"We kind of would have liked to have a little bit of a heads up maybe, but I know the district is doing the best with what they have, and I know it's going to work out, but it was a little bit of a shocker," said Graham. 

In an email, Jenks Public Schools announced plans to redistrict its attendance zones for elementary and intermediate sites. The district's Chief Operations Officer, Dr. Jeff Beyer, said the school didn't take the decision lightly.

"We try through retentional study, data analysis, a consistent pattern of looking at our enrollment trends to avoid it but sometimes it's unavoidable," Dr. Beyer said. 

Dr. Beyer said the last time the school drew new attendance zones was 10 years ago, and with the growth of the city, it's time to do it again.

"We have schools on the west side, West Elementary, West Intermediate, that are at capacity, we don't have room for any more students, and yet we have schools on the east side, East Elementary and East Intermediate that have available classrooms," Dr. Beyer said. 

As Graham prepared her son for the next year's change, she was optimistic it would work out.

"We're getting tight on the west side of the river, so it'll work out again, but yeah, it's just hard change."

A meeting about the attendance zone changes would be held Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Jenks Math and Science Center for parents and guardians to express concern and learn about the changes.