JEFFERSON — Emotions ran high and tempers flared after administrators presented the proposed plan to redistrict elementary school students in the Jefferson Area Local School District, at Tuesday's regular board meeting.
After hearing parents voice their concerns for more than an hour, the board unanimously voted to table the motion to approve the redistricting plan until it can be discussed further.
About 100 students must be shifted to Rock Creek in order to balance the numbers at both schools, said Superintendent Doug Hladek.
The decision to redistrict students arose after the Ohio School Facilities Commission allowed the district to build two small elementary schools rather than one large school. Building the two schools was contingent upon the number of students in each school. With enrollment consistently decreasing in the district, the only way the two schools could be built was to shift some of the Jefferson Elementary students to Rock Creek, Hladek said.
The plan basically moves students in Dorset Township to Rock Creek Elementary. In the eastern part of the school district, students living south of Tower Road in Dorset will attend Rock Creek. Students living in Lenox Township on Webster Road and south also will be moved to Rock Creek, as will students living on Eagleville Road and in the Thousand Trails area, according to the plan.
Students living north of the aforementioned areas will attend Jefferson Elementary.
Hladek said there were very few options available in the redistricting process. The redistricting affects 60 or more families.
Shari Tsai said her son rides the bus for 45 minutes every morning as it is. Now he will be on the bus even longer.
"These aren't high school kids, these are elementary school kids on these buses," she said. "Four months out of the year we have bad weather. I don't want my son on the bus that long in the bad weather."
Hladek said the plan is to have two buses go to the Dorset area and pick up students, then head down Footville-Richmond Road, with no other stops, and transport the students to Rock Creek. The projected ride time will be about 55 minutes or less.
Billie Jo Beck said Dorset students were already redistricted once and "You did it to us when we were kids and now you're doing it to our kids," she said. "You're putting all the Dorset and Rock Creek kids together and keeping the Jefferson kids by themselves. There's people on this board that live in Dorset and came knocking at my door saying 'Vote for me, I'll be for the Dorset kids.' Well where are you now?"
Lisa Sack was concerned about the district's open enrollment policy. If students from the northern part of the county wish to enroll in the Jefferson district, they would attend Jefferson Elementary. Students in the Pymatuning Valley and Grand Valley districts would attend Rock Creek.
"You're allowing students from outside this taxpaying district to come in here and take the spots of our children," Sack said.
The district also had an intra-district policy if students from Rock Creek wanted to attend Jefferson and vice-versa. That policy will no longer be in place next year.
Opal Phillips was very emotional about the whole issue. She was choking back tears as she addressed board members. Phillips said she was forced to change schools as a child and promised her children they would never have to.
"All I ask of you is that you think about them in all of this," she said. "When you're assigning classes, keep the Jefferson kids together so they see familiar faces on their first day of school."
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