In Oregon, two of the biggest school districts in the state have been able to come together on many sorts of educational issues.  Although there’s clearly no documented dispute between the leaders of these two school districts, the state legislature determined that there was an existing agreement over the shared boundaries between the two districts.  The legislature put forth Senate Bill 600, which mandated that the superintendents of these districts resolve disputes about the boundaries to submit a report at the beginning of November.

The superintendents, however, still believe that there’s no dispute.  They agree that current boundaries should remain the same for the school districts.  Jeff Rose of Beaverton and Mike Scott of Hillsboro believed that they did not have enough information to make the mediation successful.  Both of the individuals participating in the mediation session agreed that more community input and detailed analysis was needed before they would be able to reach an agreement.  While the superintendents of the two involved districts do believe that there are fundamental changes needed to the state boundary law, they believe that greater input from stakeholders would need to be reported before a comprehensive solution could be suggested.

Senate Bill 600 was initiated after a controversy in the area of South Cooper Mountain, Oregon, after homeowners in the area requested changes in the boundary.  The Hillsboro School Board has rejected this request twice.  Property owners invested in the issue came to the Hillsboro School Board last November to argue that they really consider themselves Beaverton residents and therefore should be included in the Beaverton school district boundaries.  The Beaverton schools tend to be much closer for their children and the land in question has already been annexed into the city of Beaverton.  Additional housing upgrades could bring as many as 1000 additional students to the district in the future.