The Liverpool Central School District has scaled back its redistricting plan, according to a information provided to the board of education at its meeting Monday, Feb. 9.
Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education Steve Garraffo gave a presentation outlining Scenario 12B, which outlines the streets to be impacted by the redistricting plan. While the original Scenario 12 affected close to 500 students, the new Scenario 12B impacts about 200.
“Scenario 12B is an adjustment of the boundary lines originally laid out in Scenario 12,” Garraffo said. He said the adjustments were made after viewing enrollment data for the 2014-15 school year. “As the numbers came into a clearer focus, the irony is that things got fuzzier. So when we were talking about redistricting, we needed a lens through which to look at every situation, at every school, at every family, and what evolved were our guiding principles.”
The administrative team working on implementing redistricting followed these “guiding principles” in drawing the new lines:
Minimize student transitions
Keep families together
Attend school nearest to the student’s residence, whenever possible
Maintain current class sizes
Balance building enrollments with district resources
Align middle schools with elementary schools
Better utilize the district’s fiscal resources
With those guidelines in mind, Garraffo said the team scrutinized the district’s existing population patterns to determine how best to redistribute students.
“We looked street by street, grade by grade, student by student,” he said. “We really tried to focus on our students’ needs and keeping families together.”
Under Scenario 12B, the following streets would be moved, effective September 2015:
From Donlin Drive Elementary to Nate Perry Elementary:
All buildings in the Norstar Apartments complex
From Long Branch Elementary to Liverpool Elementary:
Wilson Avenue
Parker Avenue
North Roosevelt Avenue
South Roosevelt Avenue
North Lincoln Avenue
South Lincoln Avenue
Harding Avenue
Harding Avenue South
Tyler Terrace
Walters Drive
Cleveland Avenue
Garfield Avenue
Cold Springs Road from 1000 to 1225
From Elmcrest Elementary to Soule Road Elementary:
Landsend Lane
Doncaster Court
Devon Court
Deptford Court
Erica Court
Ealing Court
Ebury Court
From Elmcrest Elementary to Morgan Road Elementary:
Alperton Court
Alban Court
Grosvenor Court
Albury Court
Aldgate Court
Acton Lane
Amersham Court
Aldwych Court
From Nate Perry Elementary to Chestnut Hill Elementary:
Buckley Road (houses directly on Buckley south of Seventh North Street)
Douglas Avenue
Gray Avenue
Drexler Avenue South
Sunrise Terrace
Kearney Avenue
Irving Avenue
From Willow Field Elementary to Soule Road Elementary:
Moss Oak Trail
Pinyon Path
Plum Yew Circle
Sugar Pine Circle
Choke Cherry Way
The district has already implemented a plan to reconfigure the middle schools, shifting to a “feeder” system in which certain elementary schools feed into certain middle schools. Garraffo said there will be some additional tweaks to that arrangement before the start of the next school year.
Garraffo will give the same presentation given to the board to parents at an informational meeting to be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, in the cafeteria of the Liverpool High School Annex. Further meetings will be held throughout March with the elementary parent-teacher organizations.
Superintendent Mark Potter said that, while questions remain, particularly concerning the budget, he was pleased with the way the process had gone and the results.
“We tried to do this, and I think we were very successful, with the best interests of the children of the district in mind,” he said.
To view Garraffo’s presentation, visit liverpool.k12.ny.us/about/news/show/additional-information-regarding-elementary-redistricting-158.
