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Redistricting Becomes a Board Concern

Posted on: Friday, 16 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

New houses are springing up in Lancaster fast enough to force school officials to confront the 13-letter word that makes parents bristle.

"Redistricting? Yes, the 'R' word is a concern," School Board member Arlette Kokeny said at Monday's meeting. "It could happen."

The board has asked Superintendent Thomas J. Markle to come up with a plan that would distribute the kindergarten-through-third- grade pupils more evenly among its five elementary schools. The redistricting could take effect as early as next September.

Markle is scheduled to share the plan with the board by Feb. 13. A tentative timeline would allow for public comment in the first half of March, with a board vote scheduled for March 13.

The board in the past few weeks has been struggling with last- minute surges in enrollment at its elementary schools. The board has come up with short-term solutions to immediate problems but acknowledges that a more global plan needs to be put in place.

At the end of August, the board added a kindergarten class at John A. Sciole Elementary School and a first-grade class at Hillview Elementary School to make room for higher than expected enrollments.

Monday, the board voted, 5-2, to add a kindergarten class at Como Park Elementary School, where four children registered the week before school started, pushing the class sizes as high as 25. The additional section will bring the average class size to about 20, in line with the other elementary schools.

Unlike the added classes at Hillview and Sciole, the one at Como Park brings with it a need to add to the art and physical education instruction in the school. That tacks another $3,600 onto the $35,000 cost of the kindergarten classroom teacher.

Board members Richard Foley and Joseph Maciejewski voted against adding the class, citing financial concerns. The district has exhausted all the money budgeted for additional teaching positions for this year, officials said.

Board members frequently express their frustration over the housing growth in the town, largely because it's difficult to predict how many new students to expect each year, which makes a staffing plan a moving target.

Markle said there is currently new housing in various phases of construction in each elementary school attendance area.

Children in grades four to 12 would not be directly affected by a redistricting. All children in grades four to six in Lancaster attend William Street School. The middle and high schools also serve the entire district.

The last time Lancaster went through a full-scale redistricting was in 1998, when about 170 elementary pupils -- about 8 percent of the elementary population -- ended up attending a different school, much to the irritation of parents.

The plan moved about 150 children from Court Stree Elementary School to Sciole Elementary School. About 17 more were moved from Central Avenue Elementary School to Court Street.

The district this month opened a new wing at William Street School, which eased some of the current congestion in neighborhood elementary schools by moving all of the fourth-graders into that building.

e-mail: mpasciak@buffnews.com

Source: Buffalo News

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