Emotions ran high this past week as administrators from Oxford Area Community Schools presented a committee proposal for an area attendance adjustment within the district.
“It’s always a good idea until it’s your kid,” said Superintendent Virginia Brennan-Kyro during a previous school board meeting. “We had a five year plan and those five years are up.”
“When we’re talking about area attendance adjustments, we’re mainly talking about the elementaries,” said assistant superintendent Ron Franey. “Since we only have one middle school and one high school, there’s nothing we can do there.”
Oxford Schools is growing and administrators are looking at over crowding problems in the near future with 1700 elementary students currently enrolled and 1900 expected by the year 2007. In order to prepare for this problem, the district included a 12-classroom expansion onto Leonard Elementary as a part of the last bond issue.
Also, district officials have been dealing with some inequities among the schools for some time now because of student population groupings: Lakeville Elementary is overcrowded at 551 students, Leonard Elementary is undersized at 163 students and several of the buildings are using non-classroom space for classrooms.
Officials felt that with the current numbers, and the projected enrollment increase, the time had come to adjust the area attendance.
During two parent forums this past week, district administrators presented a proposal created by a 12 member committee that including six parent representatives: Martha Tuski, Karen Schadowski, Melissa Musgrove, Helen Toteff, Stephanie Fox Kroell and Therese Seely.
The proposed redistricting would be moving two groups of students from Lakeville Elementary to Leonard. The first area involves about 19 students and covers from Barber Rd. to Casey Rd. to N. Oxford Rd. to Hosner Rd.
“We thought that this would be a nice area to add to Leonard,” said Franey during one of the forums. “In fact, some of the parents had requested to go to Leonard previously.”
The second area would involve around 140 students and covers from Lakeville Rd. to Walker Rd. to Barr Rd. to the school district’s southern border. This segment includes the entire new section of the Lake Villa Mobile Home Park.
This area was selected as a possible transfer because of the high volume of students located in such a tight vicinity. Also, all of these students are already being bused and are located close to current boundary lines.
Also as part of the adjustment proposal, the district would be transferring the kindergarten enrichment and childcare from Daniel Axford to Lakeville. Still another portion states that the administration would phase in the other schools as needed over the next five years, said Franey.
According to committee member Debbie Stout, no timing for the other schools’ attendance adjustment was established because growth can happen at any moment.
“They will monitor the conditions and the schools’ populations every year,” she said, “and when the conditions become needed at a school, the adjustment will be made.”
When considering the attendance adjustment for the upcoming school year, the committee considered numerous factors including bus ride time, ride distance, number of students in a neighborhood, number of students walking versus riding, the current boundary lines, the number of classrooms available in a building, the target enrollment for a school, the projected enrollment for a school, the projected growth for an area or neighborhood, the location of an area, the class sizes, the grade configurations, the number of grade sections available and the equity among the buildings.
“The committee looked at all school district boundary lines,” Franey told those in attendance. “We must have come up with 30 different ideas.”
The ultimate goal of the committee was to shift the student population towards the additional space available at Leonard Elementary in order to make room in the other buildings for area growth.
However, many parents attending the discussion forums were unhappy with the proposal.
“We live two minutes from Lakeville,” a Lake Villa parent stated. “Now you’re going to move my child to Leonard? So does that mean my child has to get up an hour earlier to go to school, especially in bad weather?”
Many parents voiced a concern about the extended bus ride for their children, which could total up to 40 minutes for some students after pick-up and travel time.
Oxford transportation director Charlene Pudzikowski assured the parents that the students would have specific stops in the area, and then a straight 15-20 minute drive to Leonard.
“We felt it was just as easy to bus them to Leonard as it was to Lakeville,” said Franey. “We already had a large amount traveling on the same bus anyways.”
Another concern brought forward was a flier posted at the entrance to the Lake Villa Mobile Home Park.
According to another Lake Villa parent, the flier stated that Oxford administrators were moving “failing” students from Lakevilla to Leonard.
“The was not a consideration at all,” assured Brennan-Kyro. “The committee had no idea of who these students were. That rumor is completely not true.”
Rob Guzanek, who has first and third graders at Lakeville, questioned the administration’s decision to build at Leonard with the bond issue, especially since the projected growth for the district was not in that area.
“Adding onto Lakeville was not an option,” said Franey. “It’s already far too big. We had to build where we had the available property and that was Leonard.”
“Okay, what about the special education students?” Guzanek asked. “What arrangements are going to be made to assist them with this?”
Franey assured all the parents present that special education students would be assisted in the transition on an individual basis, and that all of the students affected by this proposal would receive the same quality of education at Leonard. “We have the same curriculum at every building across the district,” Franey stated.
Several parents questioned why a large number of students located in Lapeer County were being allowed to attend Oxford schools. “They are property tax payers,” said Brennan-Kyro.
In fact, Oxford district officials cannot propose for anyone to be removed from the school district simply because of area growth problems or location. The only way for outside district boundary lines to be redrawn is through a petition by the homeowners wishing to be redistricted.
“I just think we’re getting punished because of where we live,” said Lake Villa resident Cecelia Cash, who has a 3-year-old, 6-year-old and 1-year-old. “It really seems like you guys have made up your minds and it’s going to the board as is.”
Administrators assured those in attendance that no decisions have been made, and more discussion was planned. Lakeville principal Sharon Carpinski stated that the committee would be meeting again after the public forum before taking any recommendations to the board and everyone has been working hard on this issue.
“We sliced and diced this every possible way,” said Carpinski, who is on the committee. “We’re dealing with our children and that comes first and foremost.”
One voice stood out among the crowd during the two parent forum nights. Evelyn Modders, who has one child in kindergarten at Lakeville and another in preschool, voiced some approval for the plan.
“I’m fine, it’s okay and I’m comfortable with it if my son’s being changed to another school for the right reasoning,” she said. “And to me, the right reason is to uphold the quality of education the district provides.”
During one parent forum, Modders spoke her opinion that the children will benefit from a less crowded school. “They’re going to get a better education in a less crowded building,” she said.
However, even Modders wasn’t too sure about the proposal when she first heard the news. She said she didn’t realize that Leonard was a part of the Oxford school system and she wanted her son to have the benefits of the district. “I figured ‘I’m not too happy about this, but I will go and hear the information,'” she explained.
After listening to the information, Modders feels that her son will continue to receive the high quality of education he has been getting.
“I’m more of a big-picture-kind of person,” said Modders. “I’m happy from the regard of my priorities.”
Parents on the area attendance adjustment committee remained confident in the proposal presented; in fact, two of the parents on the committee were affected by the last area attendance adjustment five years ago.
“I felt exactly like the people here did,” said Martha Tuski, “like I was being picked on.”
Helen Toteff’s family was also affected during that redistricting. “When my kids got to middle school they thought it was great because they knew two groups of kids,” she said.
All of the parents on the committee agreed that they were surprised by the amount of work involved in a decision such as this. “We touched on everything the parents mentioned tonight and last night,” said Tuski, “and this is not a closed issue.”
Committee member Stephanie Fox Kroell has the most unusual position of all in the group ? not only is she a committee voice, but her children are also being transferred. “This is frustrating because we couldn’t make everyone happy,” she said. “The past couple nights were exactly what I expected, in fact, I expected worse.”
Kroell said she was okay with the proposal and only saw one difficulty. “I thought that it was a positive move, but I still can’t justify the eight and a half mile ride,” she explained. “I understand the issues people are having, but I’m excited my kids are going to Leonard.”
Several of the committee members listed similar positive reasons for the attendance adjustment. Some of those included smaller schools leading to more controlled class sizes, Leonard being able to offer two sections of each grade, actual classrooms for all classes and the students having the opportunity to meet even more kids their age in the district.
In the end, the committee will be reviewing its proposal and making any adjustments they see possible.
“I feel we did the best we could do, and some of the people here tonight are not looking at this issue from a community point of view,” said Toteff. “I think we were as objective as we could be.” The committee will be bringing a final proposal before the school board in March.