CHCCS Send On 4 Redistricting Plans

After some procedural confusion, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools redistricting committee decided Tuesday to send four plans to the school board for consideration.

Last month, the committee was considering five plans, but tweaks and revisions ballooned the number of plans discussed by the committee Tuesday to 16.

Referred to as Com 3v 3, Com 2a, Com 3t, and Com 2, the agreed-upon plans represent three different philosophies for redistricting, committee members said.

The public presence at the meeting was low -- the official agenda only budgeting 10 minutes. Residents spoke mostly about the children who would be affected by the proposed redistricting.

Ruth Whitefield, resident of Lake Forest subdivision, said she was at the meeting representing 24 children in grades K-5 who wanted to remain at their current school.

"On behalf of a small population, we hope that you will keep us in the McDougle Elementary zone," Whitefield said.

When choosing a plan, committee members stressed the need to abide by the criteria established by the school board, which gave special attention to utilization.

Utilization was used as another word for level of service, which is the relation between student capacity and the adequacy of the facilities.

"Utilization is the number one criteria (for the school board)," said school board member Nick Didow.

On Dec. 18, after a four-month process, the committee submitted five plans to the school board, which sent them back to narrow the choices down to three.

The Dec. 18 plans submitted by the committee contained two developed by the public, two committee plans, and one joint plan.

The board stipulated that no new plans be entertained, yet it failed to limit the number of revisions to an already existing plan.

Committee members proposed variations to plans, accounting for the high number of plans considered Tuesday.

The plans reviewed Tuesday included three public plans and 13 revisions or old committee plans.

The committee started revising the elementary attendance zones because Rashkis Elementary School is slated to open in August.

Redistricting can happen no more than every three years unless a new school is built, at which time redistricting might occur.

The last time district lines were redrawn in the area was in 1998, when more than 1000 students were moved.

Major issues considered in the process concerned balanced enrollment, projected growth, contiguity of neighborhoods, socioeconomic/racial/ethnic balance and travel time.

When the plans were presented on Dec. 18, many residents who spoke at the meeting wanted contiguity and travel distance over school diversity.

Assistant City Editor Billy Corriher contributed to this report.

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