A special committee at Oxford Schools is currently working on a project that has spurred numerous questions and rumors over the past few weeks. So what’s the hot topic in the district? The committee is preparing a recommendation for redistricting the school system’s elementaries.
“I like to call it an area attendance adjustment,” said Assistant Superintendent Ron Franey, “because that’s what we’re doing.”
In light of the new district renovations, including a 12-classroom addition at Leonard Elementary, administrators saw a need to redistribute the student enrollment last year. However, district officials postponed the work until this school year.
In December, Franey and the five elementary principals began working sincerely on the project by gathering necessary internal data. Some of the information collected included the number of students currently attending each elementary, the number of students expected in each school in the near future, the number of classrooms available in the different buildings, how many more students Leonard Elementary can now accept with the new addition and how many students would be desirable in each building.
One of the numerous facts gathered showed that student distribution across the board was inproportionate per school building. For example, Leaonard Elementary currently has around 160 students while Lakeville Elementary is handling 560.
“The goal is to realign the enrollment at each school according to the target enrollment numbers,” explained Franey. “We want our schools to be certain sizes.” Oxford decided to target their numbers so that each elementary will have an average of 25 students per classroom.
“That’s just where we’d like things to be,” Franey added. “We will still end up with one classroom having 23 while another may have 28, but the average will be 25.”
Also, the district is trying to realign the schools so that all students have equal opportunities and facilities at each building.
An example would be Clear Lake Elementary which currently does not have a music room or special education room.
Realigning enrollment could open up classrooms in this building for these courses.
School administrators formed the redistricting committee in January. Franey said he asked the five elementary principals to choose parent representatives for their school.
The final committee includes Franey, the district’s transportation supervisor, four of the five elementary principals and six district parents.
“Clear Lake’s principal is not on the committee,” said Franey. “I don’t know why he’s not.”
The committee has met five times since forming and has brainstormed several options; however, Franey declined to comment on any of the proposals the group has investigated.
He stated he did not wish to “circumvent the work of the committee” since he has agreed to work with these people on the ideas and not around them.
“I just think it’s important to maintain the integrity of the committee,” he stated. “I have to work within the framework of the committee. That’s the structure the committee decided upon right from the beginning.”
Franey did state that once the committee brainstorms an idea, the members do a lot of fact finding.
Some of the factors they look into include the number of students living in a neighborhood, the transportation routes available, the number of students already in a building and the facility design of that building. Franey declined to comment on any other factors used in the investigation.
A group of Clear Lake Elementary parents attended the Jan. 28 school board meeting to voice their dislike of districting options they heard rumors about.
“Redistricting is a great idea until it involves your child,” Superintendent Virginia Brennan-Kyro told the parents. “I know how heartbreaking it can be.”
“We’re trying to take a big picture view of this. It’s our responsibility to make sure our students are at a school building and not overcrowded there.”
The committee will be reaching some final recommendations sometime in the next week. Franey stated that at this time he is uncertain whether they will be bringing forward more than one option.
The committee will be presenting their recommendations for public comment at two forums on February 19 and 20 (Wednesday and Thursday). Both evenings will begin at 7:00 p.m. in Lakeville Elementary, and the same information will be presented on both nights.
The committee plans to bring a final recommendation before the school board during the March 11 meeting.