Opening new middle school is direct concern with latest round of redistricting
Another round of redistricting is on the way for families in Olentangy Local Schools.
It’s a complicated and sometimes upsetting reality in a growing district, such as Olentangy, Superintendent Mark Raiff said.
“Redistricting is always going to be on the table as we continue to grow and open new buildings,” Raiff told ThisWeek News.
Raiff is to announce new school attendance boundaries at the district’s board of education meeting Dec. 12.
This round of redistricting is directly concerned with the opening of the new Berlin Middle School at the start of the 2023-24 school year, Raiff said, yet, each one of these processes also can help alleviate overcrowding and improve student population balance throughout the district.
“The main piece is that 700 kids are going to go to the new Berlin Middle School,” Raiff said. “Four of our five middle schools (have) over 1,000 students, with Berkshire pushing 1,300. We’re trying to get all of them under 1,000.
“That kind of overcrowding impacts the student experience. It means overcrowded lunchrooms, overcrowded electives (and) using spaces in ways they might not originally have been intended,” he said.
He said he also hopes to help manage some overcrowding issues at the elementary level during this current redistricting.
Heritage and Liberty Tree elementary schools are currently crowded at 750 students each, according to Raiff.
As a result, he said, when new families move into homes in what would be those schools’ attendance areas, students are “overflowed” into other elementaries that are not as overcrowded.
“We are sending new people to the district to schools that are not in their home area,” Raiff told board members in October.
ICYMI:Olentangy Schools slates November forums on redistricting options; input sought
Aided by the district’s facilities and redistricting committees, Raiff said he also considers transportation, how students feed from elementary to middle to high school, expected growth areas and other factors.
The district needs to address the issues of where growth is taking place and where existing district buildings are, board president Kevin O’Brien said at the board’s Oct. 6 meeting.
“We try to be careful of the impact of middle-school redistricting on how we do feeders from elementary to middle school and middle to high school," Raiff said.
"We’re also conscientious of keeping an eye on what could happen when there is growth. What we don’t want is to move somebody this year and then have to move them next year.”
Two community forums were held earlier this fall to present multiple options for redistricting and to seek feedback, Raiff said. In addition, a survey was made available through the district's website.
“We take that feedback and the (redistricting committee) makes a recommendation,” Raiff said. “Ultimately, state law gives me that responsibility, which I take very seriously.”
Raiff said he recognizes that the redistricting process can be upsetting for some students and families. When possible, he said, the district approves requests to “transfer” and remain in a student’s current building.
This current redistricting process also is to take into consideration the planned opening of the district’s 17th elementary school in 2024, according to Raiff.
That new elementary school is to be the third of three new buildings approved by voters in a 2020 bond issue/operating levy package.
Raiff said he anticipates announcing the location of that school at the board’s Dec. 12 meeting.
While this current redistricting process will take that new school into consideration where possible, it will not negate the need for another redistricting round before the new elementary school opens, he said.
Enrollment is to continue to grow, according to projections provided by the facilities committee.
Committee chair Sharon Jurawitz told board members data suggests the district will add “just under 5,000 students over the next 10 years.”
In terms of new school buildings over that time, the numbers indicate the expected need for three additional elementary schools and one new middle school.
The committee did not recommend a fifth high school during the 10-year period, although Jurawitz cautioned that the process of building a new school can be lengthy and the board may need to consider preparing for that next high school in the next 10 years, even if it’s not built until later.
“It’s not the kind of thing you can put off for 10 years and then decide,” she said. “It’s something we always need to be thinking about and monitoring.”
@ThisWeekNews
This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Opening new middle school is direct concern with latest round of redistricting
