News flash: no-one wants their kids to have to change schools
Last night I stepped into the lion's den. In other words, I attended a Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) reditricting hearing. These meetings are legendary and this one did not disappoint.
See my tweets (and other people's responses) on Storify or below.
My deep thoughts about redistricting: It's tough. Very tough. There are many competing interests — maintaining neighbrhood schools, maintaining equity among the different schools on metrics such as size, at-risk population, etc. Because we're not nearly the size of Wake County, the consequences are not as stark. But that doesn't make it easy to decide. I'm confident in our school board members to be able to analyze the data and make a good decision for the district.
I have a great respect for school board members who volunteer, and then are subjected to all sorts of abuse at these meetings. Kids who change schools will do fine at their new school-- everybody just needs to calm down :-)
Some data I obtained from the Admin and people who have driven from Segment 74A to all 4 schools:
Morris Grove is farther than Northside making Northside the 3rd farthest school, not the fourth.
Northside is .7 miles farther than Seawell for the residents of 74A
Bus pick up times will be about 4-7 minutes earlier if redistricted to Northside.
Having had my family redistricted 2 times in elementary school, I can honestly say that my kids were fine and I volunteered heavily in all 3 schools my children were assigned to. It was sad leaving a school where we were happy and involved but once we started at the new schools, we quickly became involved and happy again.
I was speaker number 39. Just a few of us spoke about the spot redistricting of Carrboro High School. There are two plans to reduce the population at CHS. One moves students to the west and two moves students from the south to new schools. After looking at the maps (they are fun to study), I hope the most western segments and most southern segments remain at Carrboro. These are the ones furthest from the proposed new schools of Chapel Hill HS and East Chapel Hill HS. I would call this plan 3. (FYI We live at segment #150).Loren
My family was redistricted twice. I fought my fanny off both times to remain at my "community school" but was moved anyway. My kids and I survived and thrived in
our new schools. When the decision was announced to move us, I attended
the next PTA meeting at our "new school" and learned all I could about
my new team. I offered my services to the school, becoming a frequent
volunteer and even PTA president at 2 different schools. My kids made
new friends and enjoyed new faculty, staff and traditions. If you are
moved, you and your children will be fine too. For those of you who
have said you will no longer volunteer at the new school, I hope you
will reconsider. Remember why you volunteer in the first place.
I was the founder, administrator, and chief editor of OrangePolitics until I retired from Orange County life in 2014.
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Comments
deep thoughts
My deep thoughts about redistricting: It's tough. Very tough. There are many competing interests — maintaining neighbrhood schools, maintaining equity among the different schools on metrics such as size, at-risk population, etc. Because we're not nearly the size of Wake County, the consequences are not as stark. But that doesn't make it easy to decide. I'm confident in our school board members to be able to analyze the data and make a good decision for the district.
Somebody has to change schools
I have a great respect for school board members who volunteer, and then are subjected to all sorts of abuse at these meetings. Kids who change schools will do fine at their new school-- everybody just needs to calm down :-)
Redistricting
Some data I obtained from the Admin and people who have driven from Segment 74A to all 4 schools:
Having had my family redistricted 2 times in elementary school, I can honestly say that my kids were fine and I volunteered heavily in all 3 schools my children were assigned to. It was sad leaving a school where we were happy and involved but once we started at the new schools, we quickly became involved and happy again.
HS redistricting
I was speaker number 39. Just a few of us spoke about the spot redistricting of Carrboro High School. There are two plans to reduce the population at CHS. One moves students to the west and two moves students from the south to new schools. After looking at the maps (they are fun to study), I hope the most western segments and most southern segments remain at Carrboro. These are the ones furthest from the proposed new schools of Chapel Hill HS and East Chapel Hill HS. I would call this plan 3. (FYI We live at segment #150).Loren
You will be fine :)
My family was redistricted twice. I fought my fanny off both times to remain at my "community school" but was moved anyway. My kids and I survived and thrived in
our new schools. When the decision was announced to move us, I attended
the next PTA meeting at our "new school" and learned all I could about
my new team. I offered my services to the school, becoming a frequent
volunteer and even PTA president at 2 different schools. My kids made
new friends and enjoyed new faculty, staff and traditions. If you are
moved, you and your children will be fine too. For those of you who
have said you will no longer volunteer at the new school, I hope you
will reconsider. Remember why you volunteer in the first place.