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Elementary school redistricting down to one proposal

Date: 4/23/2015

LONGMEADOW – There is now one proposal in the running for redistricting after the Elementary School Redistricting Subcommittee voted to strike down two of its three proposals that focus on solving overcrowding issues at district elementary schools at its April 16 meeting.

Ultimately, the subcommittee delayed a vote on recommending a proposal to the School Committee due to the ongoing issue of grandfathering students at Blueberry Hill Elementary School.

At its April 7 meeting, the subcommittee voted to grandfather grade 5 students.

Proposal A, the only remaining proposal, was first made public in a letter from Superintendent of Schools Marie Doyle to parents in February. This proposal would require relocating 60 K-3 students from Blueberry Hill to Center School.

The planned neighborhood in this redistricting proposal is located in a rectangular square, the boarders of which are Forest Glen Road to the north, Farmington Avenue to the south, Laurel Street to the east, and Route 5 to the west.

If the subcommittee votes to recommend that grades K-5 be grandfathered, a total of 472 students would be at Blueberry Elementary School and 298 students would be at Center School, according to Doyle’s slideshow presentation.

If rising fourth and fifth graders were grandfathered, the district projects that Blueberry would consist of 423 students and Center would have an enrollment of 344 students.

Aleks Mitreski, a Redistricting Subcommittee member and Blueberry Hill School parent, posed a question to the committee: “How long has it been going? It hasn’t happened overnight and it needs to be solved.”

Blueberry Elementary School Principal Marie Pratt responded by stating that roughly seven years ago the enrollment started to show disparity. Space issues began in the last three to four years.

“I think that’s really important for the public to understand,” Armand Wray, a former School Committee member and current subcommittee member, said. “A lot of this isn’t just the number of students in the school and the School Committee has been working for a long time to put more services back with our children.”

Wray said recently new technologies such as interactive white boards take up “a lot of space” in the classrooms. These types of equipment were mostly not as widespread throughout the district seven years ago as they are now.

The subcommittee also reviewed community feedback from its open forum on April 14, which included 291 resident signatures against Proposal E, which was proposed by Mitreski and included a plan to implement a swing area or buffer zone for new students who would be assigned by an administrator to a school within two miles of their home.

“One hundred and seven [people] petitioned to also move forward with Proposal A,” School Committee Chair Janet Robinson said.

The 107 people who were in favor of Proposal A were also against Proposal E, she noted.

Doyle told Reminder Publications Blueberry Hill Elementary School could be cited for a civil rights violation. Recently, Ludlow was cited for having four special education teachers working in one room, which is the same configuration as Blueberry.

“Our audit’s next year and there’s legitimate concern,” she added.

Doyle also addressed issues such as the timeline for redistricting. She apologized to the Longmeadow community regarding a lack of public awareness of the redistricting proposals in its early stages.

The district gathered information about redistricting, including forming Proposal A, to avoid a public backlash against the concept of relocating students in order to solve its overcrowding issue, Doyle said.

“I’ve apologized that this is the process I’ve used, but it is what it is,” she added.

The 20-member subcommittee also added four new members since its previous meeting.

“We felt strongly that every area that was potentially impacted had representation, so during our meeting prior to the forum, it was decided to look at Proposals C and E, so two parents were added from those neighborhoods,” she explained.

The next Redistricting Subcommittee is scheduled for April 29. The subcommittee would likely submit its redistricting  recommendation to the School Committee at this time.

The School Committee is anticipated to arrive at a final decision on redistricting at its May 11 meeting.