| Answers don’t come easy on school rezoning |
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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
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Posted: Sunday, February 1, 2009 7:15 am
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Parents want their children to attend the school closest to home, but that’s not always an option.
“I believe most everyone prefers the neighborhood concept. Attending the school closest to your home is not always possible due to schools having no control over how and where growth occurs within the community,” said Nancy Duggin, Murfreesboro City Schools board member.
Community growth, and consequently school growth, is something both Murfreesboro City and Rutherford County schools are dealing with currently.
Rutherford County’s Board of Education voted Wednesday night to rezone students away from overcrowded Riverdale High School to Blackman.
“We want kids in a classroom in a seat.” RCS Director Harry Gill Jr. said at a previous meeting. “Wherever they end up, they’ll get a good education.”
Riverdale has become increasing overcrowded in the past few years, pushing the student population to 2,256 in a school designed for only 2,000 students.
“Literally, there is no place to put another portable,” School Board Chairman Mark Byrnes said.
The rezoning will move 243 students in the Cason Lane area, located from Cason on the east to near Rucker Lane on the west, to Blackman. The shift would decrease Riverdale’s population to 2,013 and increase Blackman High’s population to 2,143.
The board also approved a measure, where all current Riverdale students and their siblings can attend at the school. But parents, who would like their children to attend Riverdale, are required to file for a zoning exemption and provide transportation for the student.
Murfreesboro City Schools is also looking into rezoning two schools for the next school year.
“There are no easy answers when it comes to rezoning,” Duggin said. “It is always a difficult and highly challenging task.”
The board wants to give all children a quality education and guard against overcrowding at the same time, she said.
“Currently, we have schools very close to capacity,” she continued.
City schools will hold two public hearings this week. The first is at 6 p.m. Monday night in John Pittard Elementary’s gymnasium. The second is at 6 p.m. Tuesday night in the Scales Elementary gym for parents at the school.
MCS Administrative Services Director Gary Anderson said both Pittard and Scales are both high-growth zones, and the schools need to be rezoned to make more space in the classrooms.
“The schools aren’t overcrowded,” he said. “We’re just trying to keep them from becoming that way.”
Both schools are designed to hold up to 1,000 students and both schools are quickly approaching that mark, Anderson said.
When Pittard opened last year, students were rezoned from Reeves-Rodgers, which became the Discovery School, and Erma Siegel Elementary. The school now has 964 students.
“That was done with the anticipation of more construction in that area,” Anderson said, explaining the housing downturn has kept the student population at Siegel from growing as much as expected and now it’s sitting with empty classrooms.
So the board will look at moving students back to Erma Siegel.
The board is also considering moving students living east of South Church Street from Scales, which has a student population of 973, to Back Fox, Hobgood or Bradley.
“We’re trying to get them to a closer school,” Anderson said.
He said the proposals will give the board a few more years before having to build more schools or look at rezoning again.
“With the economy slowing down, construction has slowed. So it’s given us a few extra years,” Anderson said.
Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com. |
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