Orange schools could redistrict

Elementary students could be attending different schools as soon as next year if plans to redistrict Orange County Schools materialize after the board of education’s Monday meeting.

Michael Gilbert, the district’s spokesman, said the rezoning is necessary because of current and potential overcrowding in schools, particularly at Cameron Park and New Hope elementary schools.

“We don’t know if the board is going to go forward with it or not,” he said. “It’s just the first step in the discussion.”

The discussion includes a presentation by Jeff Tsai, a program director at Operations Research and Education Laboratory at N.C. State University.

Tsai said he was approached in the summer by the school board to gather data on the district’s changing population:

“The charge by the board is to look at the long-term growth in the Orange County Schools area, and, using that information in combination with their current school building congestion, see what would be the most logical result.”

Tsai said his team conducted land use surveys to pinpoint subdivisions experiencing residential growth.

High-growth neighborhoods like Churton Grove have played a roll in the surge of enrollment at Cameron Park.

The school, which is one of the highest performing in the district, has a capacity of 565. This year Cameron Park saw a first-month enrollment of 617 students.

“They are quite challenged with the amount of students they have in the building,” Tsai said.

He said New Hope could also be over capacity as soon as next year, but parent Heather Acker said she can already see the effects of overcrowding.

“One of the things that I have noticed is that they’ve had to add additions —trailer units — onto the school this past year,” she said.

Acker has a fourth-grader at New Hope and said she would be disappointed for more than one reason if her child was reassigned.

“They’re very good to my child,” she said. “As far as geographical location, this is the most convenient, so I wouldn’t be that pleased about that.”

Tsai said the elementary school with the lowest utilization is Central, which is at about 55 percent of its capacity of 455 students.

Central is one of the worst performing elementary schools in the district, according to Education First’s 2009-2010 N.C. School Report Cards. The school trails both district and state student performance on end-of-grade testing in math and reading.

School board member Debbie Piscitelli said the school district rezoned four years ago, when she served on a committee to oversee the process as a parent whose children were affected by the plans.

She said a similar committee comprised of parents, principals, teachers and community members that do not have children in the district is providing feedback on the current discussions.

“Obviously redistricting strikes a nerve with parents,” Piscitelli said. “There’s a lot of conversations that need to be had before we institute any redistricting plan.

“When your elementary schools are becoming bigger than your middle schools, that might be a red flag that you need to look at it.”

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.