Last week I wrote a post on the upcoming Red Clay Consolidated School District Capital Referendum. The ballot has been broken into two parts – renovations for existing schools and a new elementary school at Graves Road. I will not be voting for the new school, and here’s why…
The reason cited for the new school is overcrowding. The district also states that Choice is not the reason for overcrowding. I’m not convinced.
Let’s take a look at these 2011-2012 School Capacity numbers (info taken from RCCD power point presentation)
Schools Program….. Capacity 2011 Enrollment 2011 % Program Capacity
Baltz Elementary 600 532 88.7%
Brandywine Springs 990 1088 109.9%
Forest Oak Elementary 613 536 87.4%
Heritage Elementary 638 572 89.7%
Highlands Elementary1 356 367 103.1%
Lewis Elementary 645 475 73.6%
Linden Hill Elementary 710 822 115.8%
Marbrook Elementary 638 548 85.9%
Mote Elementary 578 555 96.0%
North Star Elementary 710 735 103.5%
Richardson Park 2 889 777 87.4%
Richey Elementary 516 402 77.9%
Shortlidge Elementary 572 311 54.4%
Warner Elementary 640 555 86.7%
Four schools are over capacity, but I’ll only focus on three since Highland’s overcrowding is not included in the referendum. These three overcrowded schools (Brandywine Springs, Linden Hill and North Star) are the reason Red Clay states they need a new school.
Those schools are overcrowded, but what about the other ten RCCD schools that are under capacity? Looks like Red Clay has capacity space… just not where they want it.
Moving onto Choice… Given the Neighborhood School’s Law I would assume that Feeder students trump Choice students. After all, you can only Choice into a school where space is available. Red Clay states that it closed Choice into these overcrowded schools in 2007.
Okay, let’s look at the number of Choice students (School Year 2011) in these overcrowded schools for this year.
School———– In-District Choice— Out of District Choice— Total Choice
Brandywine Springs 425 27 452
Linden Hill 95 35 130
North Star 116 7 123
Total number of Choice students at RCCD’s overcrowded schools: 705
Capacity of new school: 600
Number of empty seats at other Red Clay Schools: 1,055
I’m not seeing a capacity problem. 1,055 available seats does not justify a new school. What it should justify is the need to improve existing school programs.
On a final note… I believe this referendum will pass, in part because of where and when information meetings were scheduled.
1/25/11 – Board Workshop announcing initial plans – Linden Park
2/16/11 – Board meeting reviewing initial plans – Brandywine Springs
8/17/11 – Board meeting presentation – Warner
9/8/11 – Public Information Session – Linden Hill
10/10/11 – CFRC Meeting Information – Brandywine Springs
10/19/11 – Board meeting presentation – Brandywine Springs
1/12/12 – Board Workshop Referendum Update – Baltz Elementary
2/6/12 – Public Information Session – Shortlidge Academy (6:30)
2/15/12 – This Week In Red Clay –Referendum – Comcast Channel (12:30)
2/16/12 – Public Information Session – Highlands Elementary (6:30)
2/17/12 – This Week in Red Clay – Referendum – Comcast Channel (9:00)
From the opening announcement until today only one District meeting on the referendum was held in the city. At Warner. In August.
Tonight there’s a meeting at Shortlidge; next week at Highlands. I have a conflict, but am going to try and make tonight’s meeting. I should be able to attend the one at Highlands. Not that I think it will make any difference. All that’s left for anyone with concerns is to vote “No” on the new school on February 28th. At this point, the only way to reopen discussions is for the referendum to fail. Sad.