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School Board Moves Few Elementary Kids

Posted on: Friday, 16 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Patrick Winn, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Jun. 16--CHAPEL HILL -- Deadlocked in a heated decision to reassign elementary school students, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board voted Thursday to leave most kids where they are.

Parent unrest in the past month has prompted a closer look at two schools, Scroggs Elementary and Frank Porter Graham Elementary. Both are crowded.

Parents from Scroggs Elementary have organized to get students moved out.

Many parents at Frank Porter Graham Elementary also want students moved out and assurances that the school's percentage of low-income students won't increase. It's now at 22 percent, the highest in the school system.

Split on how to pull this off -- member Mike Kelley was not present to break a tie -- the board voted Thursday to move only 12 students from Scroggs Elementary to Frank Porter Graham Elementary.

This instantly set off murmurs of disapproval in the crowd.

"I'm very disappointed," said Sandy Padden, mother of two Scroggs Elementary students. "It's done nothing for Scroggs."

Frank Porter Graham Elementary, however, will get some relief. Sixteen students will be moved to nearby McDougle Elementary, as will two full classrooms of autistic students.

The board's unanimous 6-0 vote came after lengthy discussion. "I think we're looking for a win-win and we're just not seeing it," Chairwoman Lisa Stuckey said.

The school board faces more assignment choices for the 2007-08 school year. A new elementary school -- which will require yet another reassignment plan -- is expected to open in 2009.

Though the elementary school reassignments created the most friction, the board also chose a high school reassignment plan that will affect more than 27 percent of next year's students.

This reshuffling will fill Carrboro High School -- now under construction -- with about 750 teenagers in 2007.

About 690 attending Carrboro High will come from neighborhoods that now funnel into Chapel Hill High. About 60 students will come from streets that now supply East Chapel Hill High.

Chapel Hill High is located much closer to Carrboro High, being built on Rock Haven Road off Smith Level Road in Carrboro.

The reassignment also will push about 200 students from East Chapel Hill High's zone into Chapel Hill High's.

The anticipated differences between the schools' percentages of low-income students are slight. About 17 percent of Chapel Hill High students will receive free or reduced lunch -- a marker of low family income. At East, the figure likely will be more than 14 percent, and at Carrboro High, nearly19 percent.

The school board also voted Thursday to move 23 students in what's called a "satellite" assignment zone from Smith Middle School to Phillips Middle School. This is an islandlike zone surrounded by areas that feed different schools.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The News & Observer

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