New Hanover school board approves redistricting plan

Attendance at Ogden and Blair Elementary schools will be capped to residents of existing homes under a redistricting plan approved Thursday evening by the New Hanover County Board of Education.

The plan also will leave many suburban schools close to capacity while classrooms in some downtown Wilmington schools remain empty.

But a majority of the board said the plan, while not perfect, met the immediate needs of the district and concerns of parents.

“I think this is the best we can do right now,” said board member Ed Higgins, who put forward the motion to cap attendance at Ogden and Blair to current residents. “This buys us some time.”

The redistricting plan, dubbed option nine, will see a total of 1,412 students changing addresses for the 2009-10 school year.

That list includes 436 children moving to a new elementary school opening in Castle Hayne, well below the school’s capacity of around 570 students.

But school officials had been loathe to move lots of children from their current schools, choosing to stick as closely as possible to the neighborhood school concept where children attend the school closest to their homes.

However, the new plan does little to address the growing lack of economic and racial diversity in some of Wilmington’s downtown schools.

That prompted board members Dorothy DeShields and Nick Rhodes, the two black members on the seven-member board, to vote against the plan.

DeShields said the plan does answer most of the concerns that the board heard at the redistricting forums, where support from parents for neighborhood schools was overwhelming.

“But this board has not addressed how we are going to make sure every child gets an equitable education, and I cannot with a clear conscience vote for this plan until that’s done,” she said.

That prompted a 20-minute discussion about what factors are needed to make a school successful, with all board members agreeing that busing wasn’t the answer.

“But we stopped thinking right there,” Rhodes said, alluding to the lack of alternatives discussed beyond that during the redistricting debate.

Also left disappointed and frustrated with the timing of the board’s decision was Elizabeth Redenbaugh, who won a seat on the education board but won’t get sworn in until Dec. 2.

“It’s not a good long-term plan,” she said, adding that it also concerned her that the plan did next to nothing to boost diversity.

School officials have said they will now aggressively look for solutions to add capacity to the fast-growing Market Street corridor.

Options include buying land for a new school near Porters Neck, adding a wing at Eaton or moving mobile units from other schools to Eaton or Blair.

Until then, all students moving into newly constructed homes in the Ogden and Blair school districts will be assigned to the new elementary school on Holly Shelter Road.

“I think parents and their children were anxious for a decision, and this hopefully relieves some of the uncertainty that was out there,” said board member Jeannette Nichols. “This definitely isn’t a final solution. But it does buy us some time.”

Most of the students transferring for the 2009-10 school year will come from only a handful of schools.

They include the district’s two newest magnet schools, the Snipes School of Art and Design and Freeman School of Engineering. Both schools would see their student population reduced by more than 200 students as their local districts are reduced, opening up more slots for parents who want their children to go there.

College Park will see 212 children transferred to Wrightsboro, which would see 349 of its current students moved to the new school.

Murrayville also will see 82 students moved to the new school while gaining 131 new students from Blair.

Gareth McGrath: 343-2384

gareth.mcgrath@starnewsonline.com