BROKEN ARROW SCHOOL DISTRICT ACQUIRES SOFTWARE FOR STRAGETRIC PLANNING

October 4, 2002 -- Seattle, Washington – Planware Systems LLC announced that Broken Arrow School District has acquired software to help the district make enrollment forecasts more accurately than ever before. The district has realized that their old methods of hand counting are not adequate to provide data to make critical decisions regarding the education needs of the students in a rapidly growing school district. Additionally, the changing enrollment patterns and population shifts of the district have resulted in low enrollment is some schools and high enrollments in other schools.

“The District is on the verge of phenomenal growth,” explained Dr. Gary Gerber. The new university, the recently completed highway bypass, and the record level housing construction in the north and southwest parts of the school district have created a need for sophisticated planning tools at the district level. The school district covers 115 square miles and is approximately 40% developed according to Dr. Gerber.

The district will need to open a new middle school in January and redistrict all five middle schools by the fall of 2003. The district will also begin building a new elementary school in April 2003 and it will open in the fall of 2004. Ten classrooms are being added to one elementary school in the old center part of the town and the district will close another elementary school in that area and shift the students to the three remaining schools. Then the district will open a new elementary school in the far north part of the district in the growth area. The district will then have the job of establishing the boundaries of 14 existing elementary schools. In the meantime, the school district is looking at properties with intent to add two more elementary schools, a sixth middle school and a new high school in the future.

Planning for all of these changes is an enormous job. Planware Systems MasterPlan/GIS software will help the district by projecting ten year enrollment patterns and then allow the district planners to create scenarios with different potential boundaries.