New middle school to face redistricting issue

With construction beginning on its third middle school, the county school district has begun discussions on how to best redistrict students.

The Orange County Board of Education met at the central office board room in Hillsborough on Wednesday to continue discussion held over from a special session Saturday.

The district’s third middle school, which will be built in Efland and co-located with the county soccer complex, is slated to open in August 2006. The school board has charged a special redistricting committee with examining the issue in closer detail.

“When the committee begins to do their work, they’ll be coming up with various scenarios of how to look at student reassignment,” Superintendent Shirley Carraway told the board.

The board and the committee will be involved in various stages of discussion on reassignment until the final plans are approved next February.

Carraway was ready Wednesday with a list of factors she said were important to consider in making reassignment decisions.

Those factors include the contiguity and proximity of students to schools, racial and socio-economic balance, and the capacity of existing schools.

Board members were asked to prioritize those factors to guide the decision-making process.

Carraway also distributed information to board members on current school building sizes, capacities and demographics, and steps that other districts took in redistricting.

Carraway emphasized the importance of maintaining an ideal capacity in each school.

“I imagine that’s something you would really want to consider,” she said.

Carraway’s list also included the feeding patterns between different school levels, the number of students reassigned, the equality of school program space, the plan’s sustainability and the resulting academic balance.

Board members decided to further research the factors that Carraway presented before prioritizing them, with some discussing the degree to which redistricting is even needed.

Board member Al Hartkopf asked if the only reason for redistricting needs was the planned middle school.

Carraway explained that the under-utilization of some existing schools also played a role.

Board Chairwoman Libbie Hough said some schools are hundreds of students above or below capacity.

“The board will need to address that before it becomes a real issue,” Carraway said.

But Hartkopf still did not seem pleased with the idea of redistricting.

“Minimizing student reassignment will really be tops in my book,” Hartkopf said.

He added that he thought students and parents might take care of reassignment without the board’s help.

“I think people do redistrict themselves. They vote with their feet all the time,” he said.

“I think they ought to be given a choice,” he added.

The board will continue reassignment discussions Monday.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.