By Rose Laudicina
Staff Writer
While the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education is looking forward to elementary school 11 helping to alleviate overcrowding in schools, it won’t open until fall 2013, and board members are hearing that something has to be done now.
Kevin Fuerst, coordinator of student enrollment for the district, presented to the school board at their Dec.15 meeting, outlining which schools are seeing severe overcrowding and what options are available.
Fuerst said projections show that next year there will be seven elementary schools over their Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (SAPFO) capacity and just three that will be under – Frank Porter Graham, McDougle and Rashkis elementary schools.
SAPFO requires that in order for new residential developments to be approved, adequate school space must be available.
Of those seven schools over capacity, three – Carrboro, Glenwood and Seawell elementary schools – will be hit the hardest, Fuerst said.
Because they are experiencing the most overcrowding and a shortage of classrooms for instruction, Fuerst presented options for addressing the situation at those three schools only, warning that none of the options is perfect.
“These are not good options for any of these schools,†he said. “We are really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.â€
Carrboro Elementary has a SAPFO capacity of 533 students, but is projected to see enrollment grow to 608 in 2012-13.
One option presented is to do spot redistricting for the next school year, while the second is to not redistrict until elementary 11 opens.
While the second option leaves students and teachers in a crowded situation, Carrboro Principal Emily Bivins has said they could make it work for another year.
“I support the recommendation if the principal thinks they could hold on,†board member Jamezetta Bedford said.
The projected enrollment for next year at Glenwood Elementary is 522, while its SAPFO capacity is 423 students.
The two options presented for Glenwood were likewise spot redistricting or waiting for elementary 11 to open.
“The way it is operating right now is not sustainable, and the school should not be operating at that capacity,†Todd LoFrese, assistant superintendent for support services, told the board.
Discussion from the board centered on redistricting kids from Glenwood to Rashkis Elementary, but concerns were raised about which kids to redistrict.
While options for Seawell also included waiting for elementary 11, there were two additional options for board members to consider: relocating the school’s LEAP program or moving a pre-K classroom to another location.
Seawell’s SAPFO capacity is 466 students, but they’re estimated to have 655 next year.
The board directed staff to come back with plans to move possibly a fifth-grade classroom from Seawell to Smith Middle School, look into which classrooms they could put dividers into and come up with a budget for creating a pre-K mobile classroom.
Because this item was on the work session agenda, no direct action was taken and staff will come back to the board with additional suggestions.