Board plans special redistricting parlay

The topic of redistricting elementary school lines was among the topics discussed during the Jan. 3 meeting of the Alleghany County Board of Education. The members of the board have opted to continue the discussion solely on the topic during a Jan. 12 meeting at the central office.

Superintendent Jeff Cox reminded the school board members they had discussed the "possibility of a policy we might start enforcing district lines to help balance out our enrollment at the schools a little bit."

Cox then passed out a document about district line policy considerations. One of the considerations would be to enforce district lines with very limited exceptions. These considerations include children in the Exceptional Children or English as a Second Language programs, as well as their siblings; allowing staff employees to bring their children to the district in which they work; waivers for children at a certain grade level; and having a waiver for students who have been at Sparta School for more than two or three years. Other options in the consideration would be to ponder what constitutes a legitimate waiver request; holding public hearings on changing and enforcing the district lines and sending letters to those who the school system knows would be effected; and allowing Sparta parents to choose Glade or Piney, as long as there is a capacity at that grade level and parents provide transportation.

A second consideration is implementing tuition charges. The questions posed in this scenario are whether or not tuition should be charged for all out-of-county or out-of-state students; whether or not a tuition exception should be made for staff's children if they are allowed entry. Other options would be create a ‘grandfather clause' for students who already attend school in Alleghany, but charge tuition for new students who live outside the county and/or out of state; the possibility of charging tuition only at overcrowded schools; and disallowing entry into overcrowded schools.

A final consideration mentioned in the document was considerations for moving district lines. Options under this scenario would allow for full use of all school facilities; checking on the proximity to schools; maximizing the number of students who would be impacted if district lines were moved; minimize the impact on neighbors; not making the bus routes too long; and considering the capacity of specific grade levels at all elementary schools.

A second handout Cox provided board members was a breakdown in terms of the students living out of the Sparta district, as well as out of the state and attending school at Sparta. According to the breakdown provided by Cox, 49 students who reside in the Piney Creek district are attending Sparta. Of these, two are in pre-kindergarten, nine are in kindergarten, two are in first, four in second, six in third, two in fourth, eight in fifth, a total of six are in sixth and seventh grades and 10 are in eighth grade.

A total of 61 students who reside in the Glade Creek district attending Sparta. Of these, a total of 16 are in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, three are in first, four in second, eight in third, one in fourth, six in fifth, 10 in six, eight in seventh and five in eighth grade.

A total of 19 students who reside out of state attend Sparta School. Of these, four are in pre-kindergarten, a total of four are in kindergarten and first grade, three are in second, two are in third, three are in fourth and a total of three are in sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

Looking at the document, Cox said, "My additional thoughts were, if you look at pre-k, k, first and second, I think if the board were so inclined, you could say for any student in those grade levels, you're going to be reassigned back to your home school. Third grade, in my opinion, is where the line may be. You could include, or not include, students in third grade, and there are a fair number of them, there are 14 kids in that third grade group at Sparta, six from Piney and eight in Glade Creek. For me, that's where I might draw the line. It's a consideration for the board to make."

Cox then told the board he has received feedback from parents, based on information they have learned and read in the paper, who are interested in sharing their thoughts on the topic.

"Particularly, the parents who are right now exercising that choice option and being somewhere other than what their home school. I think if we change the district lines, it would be advisable to have a public hearing and get some input on proposed changes to district lines. I think we ought to (have public hearings).

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