By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education is set to vote tonight (Thursday) on a plan that would move students from Morris Grove Elementary School to other district elementary schools to ease overcrowding at Morris Grove.
At tonight’s meeting, the board is scheduled to revisit the issue of overcrowding and decide either to move 30 students from the neighborhood north of Weaver Dairy Road, between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Sunrise Road, known as Segment 92, to Estes Hills Elementary School, or 52 students from neighborhoods south of Dairyland Road and west of Laurel Springs Drive, known as Segments 40 and 41, to McDougle Elementary School.
The decision will complete the redistricting process the board started late last year. In February, the board voted to reassign 33 students from Morris Grove to other district elementary schools, but kept students from Segment 92 at the school, despite staff recommendations otherwise.
District support staff warned that enrollment at Morris Grove could reach 650 to 660 students next year without the move. Morris Grove’s capacity is 627.
However, some board members had said they didn’t want to move those students, since some of them were redistricted when Morris Grove opened in 2008 and their neighborhood had been reassigned several times in recent years, and asked staff to look at other neighborhoods that could be moved.
Then at a work session earlier this month, board members appeared to be split on the matter of which segments to move. Parents of students from Segments 40 and 41 spoke against the move, saying that non-proficient students from those neighborhoods had also already been moved.
Segments 40 and 41 include 18 students who moved to Morris Grove when it opened in 2008, while Segment 92 has eight such students.
In either redistricting scenario, rising fifth-graders will be offered the option to remain at Morris Grove, but transportation will not be provided for them.
Board Vice Chair Mia Burroughs said she supports moving Segment 92 from Morris Grove.
“I think it best suits the philosophy of the district by balancing schools by [socioeconomic status],†she said.
According to district staff projections, moving Segment 92 would result in greater socioeconomic-status balance between Morris Grove and Estes Hills. Morris Grove is above district average and Estes Hills is below the average. Moving Segments 40 and 41 would results in a lower percentage of economically disadvantaged students for Morris Grove and a higher percentage for McDougle, which already has more economically disadvantaged students than the district average.
Burroughs noted that she felt the board had two priorities in the redistricting process: to reduce overcrowding at Morris Grove and to make improvements based on values held by the district.
“There are a lot of competing priorities here, and the one thing we know about redistricting is there is never a perfect answer,†she said.
The board will meet at 7 p.m. at Chapel Hill Town Hall, and the meeting will be broadcast on Channel 18. For more information or the complete agenda, visit chccs.k12.nc.us