After several months of discussion, the Craven County Board of Education has decided not to move forward with the countywide redistricting process that had been in the planning stages.
During their October 17 meeting, the board voted 7-0 to pause the redistricting process and focus instead on lowering the number of school reassignments that take place each year.
The board’s decision came following a process that began with the release of a redistricting study timeline in July followed by presentations by Mike Miller from Numerix, LLC, the school system’s redistricting consultant.
Earlier this month Miller presented the board with four possible options for the planned 2024-25 school system redistricting showing newly drawn school district lines, the data behind those maps, and the impact on students.
Two of the scenarios called for the closing and repurposing of either Graham A. Barden and J. T. Barber elementary schools while another called for the closing of both schools. Under Scenario D the schools would have remained open.
In addition to exploring consolidation options for the two schools, Miller said the main objectives behind the four scenarios were to better balance school building utilization and to maintain school feeder patterns as much as possible.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Miller presented new drafts of those four scenarios that had been revised based on feedback from the board. While the plans removed the option of reassigning students from Havelock High School to New Bern High, each option would have put Ben D. Quinn Elementary School at 127% capacity, a reality Board members highlighted in their discussions.
“When I drive to Ben Quinn and see a brand-new apartment complex that is not yet opened and we have another new development that will be starting in 2025 past Craeberne Forest, I think it is a mistake to move additional kids to Ben Quinn at this point,” Board member Jennifer Dacey said.
Like other Board members, Dacey said she was surprised to learn of the school system’s lack of capacity for new students. She noted that countywide, schools could only accommodate an additional 250 students.
“I think this whole exercise makes it really clear that we don’t have the space to move kids around without building some additional capacity in certain areas,” she commented.
Board member Carr Ipock said the data presented by Miller “clearly says there’s no way” to close the two schools.
“We can’t do that right now so the discussion at this point and forward should be (building) a new school working in concert with the County Commissioners and knowing that the day of the new school opening there will be redistricting, but that’s the appropriate time to do it,” Ipock said.
Board member Naomi Clark said she didn’t find any of the scenarios presented by Miller “palatable.” Clark said she agreed with scenario D’s plan not to repurpose either school but was still concerned that it would reassign 440 elementary and 20 middle school students.
“I intend to vote against all of them and I’m strongly going to suggest that we delay taking any action” Clark said.
Board members also noted that in May the Board voted to allow J.T. Barber Elementary to remain open as a K-5 school, with its existing pre-school classes in place. The vote was taken after Superintendent Wendy Miller presented options to help accommodate more than 200 students on the school system’s waiting list for pre-K services. Two of those options included repurposing J.T. Barber as a pre-K-Kindergarten center.
“It is my opinion that in order to be most efficient, rather than closing the doors at one or two schools and dispersing those students to surrounding schools which produces a domino effect, it might be best to work forwards instead of backwards,” said Board member Lauren Kitzinger. “We need to have somewhere ready for those students to go rather than contradicting ourselves by perpetuating the capacity issues at hand.”
As an alternative to undergoing the redistricting process at this time, the Board recommended limiting the number of allowed student reassignments, where families can request, due to a hardship, to have their child attend another school outside of their assigned school.
According to Superintendent Miller, there are currently 689 students on reassignment in Craven County schools. The schools with the highest percentage of reassigned students are Trent Park Elementary (13%), Bangert Elementary (15% ) and WJ Gurganus Elementary (16%).
“I think that if we slowed down on allowing reassignments that would also give us true data as to the number of children that are in our schools,” said Board member Kelli Muse. “A new larger Elementary School would help things tremendously.”
According to a press release from the Board of Education, as the Board reviews the reassignment process, any revisions will be shared with families so they are aware of the changes.
By Todd Wetherington, co-editor. Send an email with questions or comments.