The Broward School Board may delay a decision on an attendance boundary change to a Cooper City middle school that would have repercussions in other parts of the county, several board members indicated Tuesday.

Putting the hot issue on hold for a year would give the district more time to avoid reshuffling hundreds of students to alleviate overcrowding at Pioneer Middle. It also would likely appease -- temporarily -- hundreds of parents who have protested the plan at recent meetings.

The strategy is risky: If the district does not follow through with a switch this year and it does not find a way to avoid a boundary change altogether, then sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders would have to transfer out of Pioneer at the same time in two years. Broward has tried to avoid those mass moves, phasing in grades instead.

But in a reversal Tuesday, some board members said they would prefer a possible large, one-time boundary switch next year to an incremental change this year.

``Let's just get killed once,'' chairwoman Jennifer Gottlieb said, citing Cooper City parents' and commissioners' pleading for more time to digest possible boundary moves. ``They said, `Don't do it this year.' They said, `Let us figure out what we're doing.' ''

Last month, the board decided to move forward with the boundary change at Pioneer, the only significant move on the table for the 2010-11 school year.

Were the switch to happen, about 170 incoming sixth- and seventh-graders at Pioneer would have to transfer. Where they would go is still unclear: One option has kids going to Pines Middle in Pembroke Pines; the other to Driftwood Middle in Hollywood.

Under either proposal, to make room for Pioneer students, another 170 kids who now go to Pines or about 185 who go to Driftwood would be transferred to Apollo Middle, also in Hollywood.

Pioneer, Pines, Driftwood and Apollo middles all received an A grade from the state last school year.

The district held four meetings for community members to give input -- and they did, coming out by the hundreds to oppose the plan.

Parents and community activists were cautiously cheered by the board's possible shift Tuesday -- but said more changes were needed in the long term.

``At this point in time, that would be a great thing,'' said Felicia Anderson, co-chair of the Cooper City Education Advisory Board and a former teacher at Pioneer Middle. ``But I think things need to be solved. We don't need a Band-Aid on the situation.''

The board was not scheduled to take up boundaries at its Tuesday workshop meeting, but members ended up discussing it for more than an hour.

Gottlieb tried to get a majority of the board to agree to push back the boundary switch until next year, but members said they should hold off on a decision until Dec. 8, when Superintendent Jim Notter will give the board his recommendation.

On Tuesday, Notter sounded likely to support a delay. ``Your superintendent doesn't think that's a bad idea,'' he said.

Board member Kevin Tynan, whose district includes Cooper City, also tentatively backed a delay, as did Phyllis Hope. A few others nodded their heads in assent.

No one directly opposed the suggestion, though Bob Parks pointed out that the Pioneer proposal was not the only recent controversial boundary move.

``I wish you'd said that last year with Coconut Creek,'' he said, referring to a contentious boundary move that sent students from Lyons Creek Middle in his district to Margate Middle in Stephanie Kraft's district.

``Last year Stephanie and I were getting all the bullets,'' Parks added. ``I didn't hear anybody say, `Why don't you wait a year.' ''

The School Board changes boundaries when new schools open and to solve crowding at some packed schools by moving students to underenrolled ones.

The state has ruled Broward has too many empty seats to justify building new schools.

To avoid future boundary changes that would shuffle thousands of students from overenrolled schools in western Broward to underenrolled ones along the county's eastern edge, the board wants Broward municipalities to sign off on changing the way school enrollment is measured.

A majority of cities, as well as the county, would have to agree to that change, which would loosen measurements so fewer schools would be considered overcrowded. But it would not prevent all boundary moves, Notter cautioned Tuesday.

Board members scheduled a meeting for Monday to discuss the municipalities' agreement.

Parent Ron Myers, whose sixth-grade son and fourth-grade daughter would be shifted from Pioneer if changes were approved, said a delay would be ``wonderful.''

Said Myers: ``That's what's needed right now is some space, some time and reflection and the chance to do all this work.''