According to school officials, the Scotia-Glenville Central School District has four options for balancing enrollment between its four elementary schools. Those four options are: doing nothing, redistricting particular streets, establishing swing zones or closing one of the schools most likely Lincoln. A decision, which could affect the 2007 fall registration, will not likely come easily for the board.
At the Monday, Nov. 13, board of education meeting, Superintendent Susan Swartz said this is not a sudden problem, but rather one that has been creeping up` in the district for several years.
`We are reaching that crucial point where we need to do more than simply reassign certain students to try and balance out our two village schools and our two town schools,` said Swartz.
Currently Glendaal and Glen Worden are growing in enrollment every year, but, at the same time, enrollment is waning at Lincoln and Sacandaga. This trend is partly a result of growth in Glenville.
Swartz has held several focus groups with staff and parents in an effort to pinpoint the greatest concerns throughout the district.
`What I found most disturbing is that there are people who feel that village schools are not as good as our town schools. I’ve heard people saying that the different cultures at the four schools make some more popular than others,` said Swartz during a presentation on redistricting. `I can assure you that each elementary school is at a high level of quality education. I also found that everyone feels very passionately about his or her neighborhood school, which is a good thing.`
Other board members spoke in opposition to redistricting.
`I fail to see how redistricting streets has helped us in the past,` said board member Ben Conlon. `You are always going to encounter those same problems.`
Board member Kurt Anhert said he agreed with Conlon that redistricting is not a solution.
`I share Ben’s concerns in that redistricting may still put us in a position of moving students to fill gaps,` said Anhert.
Anhert said he feels most parents would choose to live with a larger class size rather than switch from school to school.
Board member Pam Carbone said she thinks that changing schools is often harder on the parents than the students.
`I remember my son having to switch schools after second grade, but he made new friends, and we got through it,` said Carbone.
Resident Colleen Beneditto said she hopes that the board takes into consideration the effect of redistricting on families with several children in school.
`Please take into account siblings. It makes it very difficult to have several children close in age attending different schools, taking different buses,` said Beneditto.
According to Swartz, about 90 students are not in their home schools.
In the past, when students are reassigned and a space becomes available, they are invited back to their home school. If they choose to stay at the reassigned school, they are considered to be on `special permission,` a practice Swartz said she hopes to eliminate.
`When students are on special permission, it makes it very difficult to account for their proper placement year after year,` said Swartz.
Swartz also recommended that the board develop a policy for daycare transportation, centralizing registration, implementing a yearly census, and addressing any anticipated 2007-2008 `bubbles` in enrollment.“
