Springdale board to hear update on plan to shift students

The Springdale School Board will receive an update on the district’s plans to shift students in elementary schools on the east side, including Harp Elementary School.
The Springdale School Board will receive an update on the district’s plans to shift students in elementary schools on the east side, including Harp Elementary School.

SPRINGDALE — Hundreds of elementary school children will switch schools in August because of changes in attendance zones.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette/CHRIS SWINDLE

A map showing Springdale school zones

A new elementary school is under construction behind J.O. Kelly Middle School off Robinson Avenue. Plans are to open the school with about 610 students, about 500 of whom will come from five other schools, said Gary Compton, an assistant superintendent overseeing the changes to attendance zones.

Projected Enrollment

Projected changes in enrollment with proposed shifts in attendance zones in east Springdale elementary schools:

School 2015-16 2016-17

New school 0 612

Bayyari 646 591

George 639 619

Harp 605 562

Jones 566 552

Lee 532 498

Monitor 761 636

Parson Hills 556 552

Sonora 683 577

Turnbow 798 590

Note: Projected enrollments reflect the anticipated total enrollment. Some enrollment changes may be due to the sizes of grade levels and students who attend a school but live outside its attendance area, such as children of staff members and students who enroll by choice. No changes are planned in the Bayyari, Jones and Lee attendance zones.

Source: Springdale School District

Compton projects the school will open with about 100 kindergartners, he said.

The School Board will see the latest proposal for shifting attendance zone boundaries at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Springdale School District administration building, 804 W. Johnson Ave. The proposed zone changes are preliminary, with Compton planning to present the maps for approval at the April 12 School Board meeting.

“Moving forward there will be opportunities for input, and we understand, and welcome the notion, that changes might take place,” Compton said.

Some students from Sonora Elementary School, including from neighborhoods near The Jones Center, are proposed to move into the new school’s attendance zone.

“It is so hard for those schools that are losing kids or families,” Sonora Principal Regina Stewman said. “You really develop relationships with them and truly become partners with their families.”

The process is easier with Stewman knowing where her students are going, she said. She plans to partner with Cindy Covington, principal of the new school, to ease the transition.

Compton established priorities for conversations about shifting attendance zones, he said. They include reducing enrollment at Monitor and Turnbow elementary schools, moving as few students as possible, creating as many “walk zones” as possible and being sensitive to how new zones impact neighborhoods and bus transportation, he said.

After the School Board reviews the proposed changes, Compton will take the latest maps to each of the affected schools for input from parents and staff.

The new school on Oriole Street in Springdale is due to draw large numbers of students from Monitor and Sonora and smaller numbers of children from George, Harp and Parson Hills elementary schools, he said.

Monitor’s enrollment is expected to drop from 761 students to about 636 students, with all of the transferred students going to the new school, under the latest plan.

Downsizing Monitor will give the music teacher and the physical education teacher more flexibility for creating activities for students, such as choirs or bicycle clubs, Principal Maribel Childress said. The extras are more difficult because of the school’s size.

“When we have such a large school, services are watered down,” Childress said.

Turnbow’s enrollment is expected to fall from 798 students to 590 students with the proposed attendance zones, Compton said.

Turnbow Principal Stacey Ferguson estimates 150 students will go to Harp and about 60 will go to Sonora, she said. Turnbow’s attendance zone has grown more compact as the Springdale School District has opened elementary schools on the east side of the district, including Sonora in 2011.

Losing students is hard, she said.

“I know 95 percent of our kids by name,” Ferguson said. “It’s personal. You know them.”

But four of six grades are full, meaning Ferguson has to force incoming students to go to other schools until she has an opening, a situation that can last for a week to several months, she said.

“With our population of English language learners, it always helps to have smaller class sizes,” Ferguson said.

English language learners — those whose first language isn’t English — make up about half of the student body at Turnbow.

Compton has spent months working with district staff on redrawing attendance zone boundaries. He has given presentations to the district’s administration, principals, transportation staff and to a group of parents, community members and staff involved in the district’s Patron Shelf. The School Board last saw a draft of the attendance zone changes in November.

Attendance zones for Bayyari, Jones and Lee elementary schools will not change under the preliminary plan, Compton said.

Brenda Bernet can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWABrenda.

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