Miranda Pederson/Daily News Briarwood Elementary School students Sawyer Moore (from left), 10, Sam Kniery, 10, and David Wiles, 11, look over the redistricting map during Monday’s Warren County School Board meeting at the school.

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The Warren County Board of Education saw a packed gymnasium Monday night during its meeting to approve new attendance boundaries that will affect eight elementary schools and more than 400 students.

But as student presentations to the board finished, the crowd dwindled to only a handful of parents, who told the board they would have liked more information about the redistricting process and how decisions were made.

The board voted unanimously to approve the lines, which remain unchanged following several weeks of being displayed on the school system’s Web site for community suggestions.

“I would like to see more than just lines but how the decision was made would be very helpful,” said Jennette Fetters, one of the parents who approached the board.

Clara Guyer, whose daughter is being moved from Natcher Elementary School to Cumberland Trace Elementary School, said she lives just behind Bowling Green High School and thinks the area is being targeted as a low-income area.

Guyer said she understands that as an area heavy in rental property, it is considered a “locked area” without much growth potential. Yet the added four-mile drive will make it difficult for single mothers like herself and other working parents.

“It seems unreasonable that my child has to go across the bridge,” Guyer said. “But she’ll get her education regardless because that’s my job as a parent.”

Board members assured that putting the tentative lines on the Web site was a step added to keep families informed about changes and allow for feedback. Several members reiterated that every e-mail was read and considered.

Kerry Young, vice chairman of the board, said Marilann Melton, the district’s director of pupil personnel, took many phone calls and answered questions about the process. He said she was diligent in explaining how officials reviewed census data and met with planning and zoning officials to determine what community areas anticipate growth.

“We realize that the ideal situation would be to have a school and a perfect circle around it,” he said, adding that because of growth, the lines are not perfect and may not make sense at a glance. “But (with a circle) instead of affecting 3 percent you’ve affected 8 percent and in a year or two the lines are messed up again.”

With the first phase of redistricting complete, Melton and a team of officials will begin the process again as they draw new lines for middle and high school attendance for the 2010 school year. The second phase will determine which students from Greenwood and Warren Central high schools, as well as middle school students who feed into those schools, will be attending South Warren Middle and High School, currently under construction on Rich Pond Road.

During the meeting board members also received a status update of the new building as well as other projects at the new aquatic center on Lovers Lane and the new Richardsville Elementary School.

Architect Kenny Stanfield with Sherman Carter Barnhart of Louisville said some classrooms are already receiving paint at the new middle and high school and the performing arts center that attaches the middle and high school sections is under construction.

The much-anticipated pool facility next to the school board office is still about a month from completion, according to Justin McElfresh, project manager with SCB. Photos of the new facility, about six months behind its expected open date, flashed from screens in the gymnasium as Stanfield explained that the final step of tiling the pool was approaching and could be a lengthy process.

The new Richardsville Elementary School is officially under construction, Stanfield said, and board members authorized a grant request Monday to the U.S. Department of Energy to pay for half the solar panels designed into the building to make it the first “net zero” energy use school in the country.

The grant requests about $3.5 million for both Richardsville and the anticipated Bristow Elementary school buildings in a 50-50 match with local funds.

Stanfield said the bidding process for Bristow should begin May 6, and added that while at a national conference in Atlantic City, N.J., many were familiar with the Richardsville project during one of his presentations, noting it was the “net zero school in Kentucky.”

The school is expected to produce enough clean energy through the solar panels to sell the excess energy back to power providers. By reducing energy consumption in the building, Stanfield has said it will provide a profit once the panels are fully paid for.

At the end of the meeting, Superintendent Dale Brown updated members on progress the school system is making with Western Kentucky University in meeting the new guidelines for college readiness as mandated by Senate Bill 1.

“We feel that WKU and our district are leaders in that regard,” he said.

Brown said the schools are nearing an assessment period in core content areas, despite reports that testing would be abandoned.

“We are not dropping off on anything in regard to assessment,” he said. “It’s full speed ahead.”

Brown said one of the challenges the district faces is finding space for the growing pre-school program, but added that the growth is a positive thing because while some districts are laying off teachers, Warren County has actually increased by seven net positions.

As the district heads into its next redistricting phase, Brown assured parents “we will do our best to improve communication ... and offer quality opportunities for our children.”