Residents Discuss Redistricting

Numerous neighborhood residents voiced their opinions about the seven new redistricting plans for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. The school board must redistrict every few years to balance out population growth across schools in the district.

This redistricting effort differs from previous years' through better communication from the public, but the problems that have arisen are comparable to those from the past, said Gloria Faley, vice chairwoman of the school board.

"We're listening to the community," Faley said. "We're also using scientific programs to balance out the enrollment."

The redistricting committee, led by school board member Lisa Stuckey, conducted the public hearing. Members have not yet begun to decide which plan will be put into effect.

"They are all rough draft plans, and that's an accurate description of them right now," Stuckey said. "We haven't made any decisions about any of them at this point."

According to the preliminary designs, the final redistricting plan could be adopted as early as January.

The concerns of most segment areas are continuous. Some of the plans bus children who live within miles of their current elementary school across town to fill minority or socioeconomic requirements.

Neighborhoods will be split, and children in the same areas would be sent to two different schools in certain committee and public plans.

Other plans also call for moving children to different schools who already have been moved as many as three times in their elementary school years.

Kelly Wayne, spokeswoman for Lake Hogan Farms, said her neighborhood has changed schools two times already and most likely will have to change two more times as a result of this redistricting process and again when the proposed elementary No. 10 opens in 2005.

"That would mean four elementary assignment changes in an eight-year span of time," Wayne said. "An average of every two years -- it's simply too much to ask of any one community."

All plans must conform to basic criteria set for the redistricting process: contiguity and stability in keeping children at the same schools if possible, minimizing travel and busing, and balancing racial and ethnic composition, as well as socioeconomic status.

While using this criteria on which to base their decisions, school board members and members of the redistricting committee say they still understand and listen to the concerns of the parents.

"It's traumatic for both the parents and the child," Faley said. "They adjust, but it's hard and we understand that."

The problems attached to the seven redistricting plans affect numerous families, elementary schools and segment areas. But with constant growth of the area, Stuckey said a balance must be obtained.

"Redistricting is always the same every time. The goal of course is to balance the kids."

Wayne, who has two children in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system, said school board members should keep the big picture in mind when redrawing district lines.

"It's not just moving children, it's moving families."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.