Hillsboro vs Aloha

When I first started looking at the boundary changes, I had an immediate, emotional reaction. My first thought was "We're being displaced by Hillsboro City kids." I even sent fliers to a couple people that took that viewpoint.

For a lot of us in Aloha, we have a bit of a confused civic identity, occupying an unincorporated twilight zone between 2 large incorporated cities. It also feels like we are sometimes looked down on by folks from Hillsboro. A few times when I told people that we were getting our elementary school boundary within the Hillsboro district moved the immediate response was "Oh no, are they sending your kids to Aloha?" That hurts.

After some time for reflection, I really can't say that I have ever suffered from being close to Hillsboro, actually the opposite is quite true. As a product of the Hillsboro School District, I know that our inclusion in the district has been nothing but a great thing so far.

Reflecting on my comments for tonight's meeting, I realized that Hillsboro vs Aloha isn't a constructive approach to the boundary issue. Whatever school the folks from the Hillsboro annex end up in, they will and should be welcomed with open arms, if anything our own anxiety about the boundary process should make us empathetic and if we feel that we have been slighted in the process, it wasn't their doing.

I am still concerned that the makeup of the boundary committee seems to be skewed toward principals from elementary schools exclusively from within Hillsboro city limits but I haven't quite figured out what area each committee member represents. It would be nice if the committee published each committee member's school affiliation so I didn't have to try and piece it together from my meeting notes or the district web site.

Side note: As an example of how we benefit by our proximity to Hillsboro, when a man was murdered in his car in the driveway of a nearby home (which is now excluded from the Indian Hills boundary N of Rock Road in "springboard" plan #1), the Washington County Sheriff's deputies responded immediately (link). But hot on their heels were K9 units from the Hillsboro PD - they worked tirelessly for hours trying to track down the killer who had invaded our neighborhood. The same teamwork was repeated just a few weeks ago when a young teen was assaulted while walking toward his Aloha home from Quatama Max Station (link). The Hillsboro PD K9 units and other officers responded immediately to assist WCSO.

[edit - order of post content adjusted. Also, I just noticed that the statement from the SO simply says that "A K9 unit responded but they were not able to locate the suspects", Come on guys, would it kill you to acknowledge that it was a Hillsboro unit that responded? When I heard the sirens I turned on my scanner and heard with my own ears that it was HPD K9 that assisted.]