New Merced City School District boundaries will shift 6th grade to middle school

MERCED, Calif. (KFSN) -- After over a year of planning and collaboration, the Merced City School District (MCSD) is adjusting its school boundaries.

"We've been looking at maximizing the use of our facilities, and we've been experiencing overcrowding in some of our schools for quite some time," MCSD superintendent, Julianna Stocking explained.

In January, the board of trustees decided the elementary school boundaries will change in the 2025/2026 school year.

The 2026/2027 school year will bring new middle school boundaries, and 6th graders will relocate from elementary to middle school.

Parents may be worried about the transition, but the district says they do everything possible to ease any concerns.

"Ensuring we have resources, ensuring that there was safety, school counseling resources available and really making sure we were focused on educational program," Stocking said.

While the timeline for the change is set, the district's board still needs to choose between a red and blue map to finalize those new boundaries.

The red map would impact around 1,200, students while the blue map would affect a little over 1,000 students.

Both aim to help balance class sizes.

"The one we're trying to alleviate the overcrowding from is Chenoweth Elementary School, so there's capacity at Givens," explained Bryan Behn, MCSD director of facilities.

"So, do we move directly from Chenoweth to Givens with one section or do we do a combination where we move some students to Burbank and then from Burbank to Givens."

The board is set to vote and accept one of those maps in a meeting Tuesday evening.

The public is welcome to the open session of that meeting on Tuesday at 7 pm at the district's S.T.E.A.M. Center located at 2900 Green St in Merced.

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