The Oakland and Siegel high schools public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 12 at Siegel High School.

The Riverdale and Blackman high schools public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 14 at Blackman High School.

The board heard proposals in December that would shift students from increasingly overcrowded Riverdale High to Blackman High and shift students from Siegel High to Oakland to decrease to percentage of low-income students at the school.

Oakland/Siegel

At a meeting earlier this week, the board heard four additional proposals to shift students from Siegel to Oakland.

Alternate 1 would move 177 Siegel high students, living west of Memorial Boulevard between Sunset Avenue and Haynes Drive, to Oakland. This move would reduce Oakland’s free and reduced lunch population from 36 percent to 35 percent.

Alternate 2 would move 195 Siegel high students living along Lebanon Road from Thompson Lane to the county line. This proposal decreases Oakland’s free and reduced lunch population to 35 percent.

To view maps of the alternate rezonings, click here.  

Alternate 3 would move 96 Siegel high students, living east of Memorial in the Brentmeade subdivision, to Oakland. This proposal reduces Oakland’s disadvantaged student population to 34 percent.

Alternate 4 would move 110 Siegel high students living in downtown Murfreesboro near MTSU to Oakland. This proposal would actually increase the school’s free and reduced lunch population to 38 percent, while decreasing Siegel’s burden from 20 percent to 17 percent.

Alternate 5 would move 361 Siegel students living in downtown Murfreesboro and around Mitchell Neilson Elementary to Oakland. This proposal would actually increase Oakland’s free and reduced lunch to 39 percent and reduce Siegel’s to 12 percent.

The board also looked at combinations of proposals, like if students from both Alternates 1 and 3 were rezoned.

This proposal would move 273 students and decrease Oakland’s population of disadvantaged students to 33 percent.

If Siegel students from both Alternate 3 and 4 were moved, Oakland’s percentage of underprivileged students would stay the same, but Siegel’s population would decrease to 18 percent free and reduced lunch.

In December, the board also heard proposals to reduce the number of students on free and reduced lunch at Oakland by moving Siegel high schools students from more affluent areas.

The first proposal would move 202 students living in downtown Murfreesboro from Siegel to Oakland. But the proposed move would actually increase the number of poor students at Oakland from 36 percent to 39 percent and decrease Siegel’s burden, going from 20 percent to 15 percent.

The second proposal was more well received and would move students living east of along Lebanon Road to the north of Thompson Lane back to Oakland.

The board seemed more accepting of this proposal as it would reduce Oakland’s free and reduced lunch population from 36 percent to 34 percent.

Riverdale/Blackman

The first Riverdale proposal would move students in the Cason Lane area from Riverdale to Blackman. The shift would decrease Riverdale’s population to 2,013 and increase Blackman High’s population to 2,143.

The second proposal would move students living along River Rock Road from Riverdale to Blackman and decrease Riverdale’s population to 2,041 and put 2,118 students in Blackman.

The third proposal covers I-24 to Broad Street from Middle Tennessee Boulevard to Old Fort Parkway and would reduce Riverdale’s population to 2,112 and increase Blackman’s population to 2,044.

The board showed no preference between the proposals, but did discuss the impact on Blackman in coming years, fearing it would just trade overcrowding at Riverdale for overcrowding at Blackman.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.