BENTONVILLE -- Turnout was light for Wednesday's public forum on school rezoning, though a few parents took the opportunity to express their displeasure over the changes administrators have proposed.
About 15 people -- other than School District administrators and School Board members -- showed up at the Arend Arts Center for a discussion of the plan to rezone elementary school attendance boundaries for the 2019-20 school year. That's when a new elementary school will open on the district's south side.
Decision Time
The Bentonville School Board will consider the recommendation to rezone elementary school boundaries in 2019 at the board’s meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday. The meeting will be at the Administration Building at 500 Tiger Blvd. Those who sign up may address the board for up to three minutes before the board’s vote.
Source: Staff Report
It was the first chance the public had to meet with administrators and ask questions in person about the proposal since it was revealed two weeks ago. The district also offers information and accepts questions submitted through its website at BentonvilleK12.org.
Superintendent Debbie Jones started by addressing the question of why the district needs to rezone so often.
"It's not because we like it. It's because of the rapid growth we experience. Our purpose is to provide the best educational environment for our students that we can," Jones said.
District enrollment has grown about 13 percent in the past five years. The last time the district rezoned elementary schools was for last school year.
The next rezoning is expected to impact about a quarter of all students in grades kindergarten through third grade, according to Tanya Sharp, director of student services.
Tiffany Todd, who lives on Dogwood Street in Centerton, said her son, a first-grader with special needs, attended Centerton Gamble Elementary School for kindergarten before switching to Osage Creek Elementary School this year. He would move to Central Park Elementary School in 2019 under the proposed zoning change.
Todd fought back tears while telling Jones how stressful the changes are on her family. She said she had to fight to get services for her son at Osage Creek that he got last year at Centerton Gamble.
"How are children supposed to make friends, and how are they supposed to feel at home?" Todd said.
Jones said the district does consider the impacts of rezoning. Administrators opted not to make some boundary tweaks for this school year despite some enrollment imbalances at the schools. They also decided to put off rezoning until 2019, though not rezoning next year will cost more in personnel and may result in putting portable classrooms at Elm Tree Elementary School.
"We're doing everything we can to buy every year we can before we move families," Jones said. "And so we hear your concerns and we're very considerate of those."
After the meeting, Todd said switching from Osage Creek to Central Park will more than double the family's commute time to school. She said when she told her son about the plan to move him out of Osage Creek, he had a meltdown.
"He was very sad. He's come to love his new school and the staff," she said.
Laura Mills, a mother of four and secretary for Centerton Gamble's parent-teacher organization, said her street would be rezoned for Thomas Jefferson Elementary School under the proposed map. She said they live about five minutes from Centerton Gamble, but Jefferson is 15 to 20 minutes away.
"That doesn't make any sense, when my kids can literally walk to Centerton Gamble," Mills said.
Jones said because of the small populations of students in the center of Bentonville, zones must be extended to bring kids into schools such as Jefferson.
Mills said her oldest daughter went to Elm Tree before being forced to change to Centerton Gamble starting last fall. It took her daughter a whole year to accept the move, she said.
Another woman asked if the district might agree not to force a special-needs child to change schools.
The district has to be strict about the zones, but also must provide for special-education students what is required within their individualized education plans, Jones said.
"So I can never say that we will or will not do anything. It's very dependent on what's written in (the plan)," Jones said.
One man said his family lives in the Gentry School District, near the border with the Bentonville district. He said they want to be in Bentonville and wondered if the district's boundary could be moved across the street.
School district boundaries can't be moved, Sharp said. She added, however, families may apply to move from one district to another through the state's school choice law.
A district must allow a student to move in if the district has sufficient capacity at that student's grade level and there is no additional cost associated with adding the student, Sharp said.
Jones ended the meeting by acknowledging the impacts rezoning has on families. The district is trying its best to minimize the number of times it rezones, she said.
As more schools are built in the places where population is growing, it will get easier, "But the reality is, we still have some downtown schools and we have to use those schools for capacity," Jones said.
Elementary school is the only level being considered for rezoning at this time.
NW News on 12/14/2017