by Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education last week voted 6-1 to approve a plan that will move about 60 students to new middle schools in the fall.
The changes will reduce enrollment at Culbreth Middle School and move orphan segments that were created during elementary redistricting last year. An orphan segment is a small group of students that is the only group from an elementary school to attend a particular middle school.
The board also tried to use the redistricting process to balance the number of students who receive free or reduced-cost lunches.
Without the changes to middle school assignments, Culbreth Middle School would have been more than 80 students over capacity during the 2008-09 school year, while the other three middle schools would have been under capacity, with McDougle Middle School more than 130 students under capacity.
Under the redistricting plan, Culbreth will be only about 15 students over capacity this fall.
Board member Annetta Streater cast the only dissenting vote, expressing concern that certain groups that would be moved have a strong connection with Culbreth and with other families who have children who attend the school.
“What I’ve heard is that African-American families in particular have a strong connection [with Culbreth] because of the location of the school, the proximity to the neighborhoods,†she said. “There’s a lot of value in those families relating to one another.â€
To relieve overcrowding at Culbreth and eliminate orphan segments, the board voted to move several segments from Culbreth to McDougle. These segments include:
•Chambers Ridge Apartments;
•Westbrook;
•Canterbury Townhomes;
•Royal Park Apartments;
•the Prince Street/Barnes Street area;
•South Greensboro Street from Main Street to Rocky Brook Mobile Home Park;
•Old Pittsboro Road;
•Roberson Place; and
•Maple Avenue.
Other segments would be moved from Culbreth to Phillips Middle School because of transportation issues. These include:
•Foxcroft Apartments;
•Willow Terrace;
•Sunstone Apartments;
•Camelot Apartments; and
•250 South Estes Condos (the University Mall area).
The changes include only rising sixth- and seventh-grade students, because rising eighth-grade students will be allowed to choose to remain at their current schools. If rising eighth-graders choose to remain at their schools, transportation will not be provided by the district.
Several board members said they hope to improve the redistricting process in the future in order to best accommodate all district families and the needs of the district.
will the Weatherhill pointe neighborhood be moved as well as Chambers Ridge, and Westbrook