Dozens of area parents turned out to hear Bentonville School District administrators' thoughts on rezoning at an open meeting on Feb.3.
Under the present plan, 100 families from Cooper Elementary School will be affected, but they were not allowed to speak at the evening meeting. The district has posted a survey form on their website to gather comments.
Last year, parents organized protests over a different rezoning scheme, which the board dropped. One of the concerns parents voiced at that time was that with a new elementary school opening in 2017 elsewhere in the district, some students would be moved twice in three years. Most of the students who will attend the new elementary school will not be moved this year, superintendent Michael Poore said, although some may. He said the zones should be good through 2019, when another elementary school may open.
This year's plan affects fewer families in the Cooper area, but some parents whose children will not be moved are worried about increased traffic.
The plan takes an area north of McNelly Road away from Cooper and puts those families into the Sugar Creek Elementary School zone. A smaller area near the Missouri border, but on the west side of U.S. Highway 71, will move from Thomas Jefferson Elementary School to Cooper. Thomas Jefferson and Sugar Creek are next to each other in north Bentonville.
Parent Angela Hopkins filmed a commute from the Metfield/Witherby area to Sugar Creek and posted the video on Facebook. Her commute will increase from 5 to 7 minutes to 27 to 30 minutes.
"The transportation department doesn't consider peak times," she said. "They look at miles, but they don't look at travel time." Because she would be driving her child to school during rush hour, the times will be very different, she said. She explained that she chooses to drive her child to school because the pick up for the school bus is very early.
She also disputes the district's claim that transportation costs will go down with the new zones.
"Cooper buses are already going to that area," she said. "If they move half the kids, they will have to send extra buses so that means higher transportation cost."
Amanda McGinty has been putting her son on the bus to Cooper so that she can drive to work via McNelly Road, but if the new zone is adopted that will have to change.
"We bought our house to be in the Cooper district," she said. "I didn't think we could be rezoned since we're so close to Cooper."
McGinty said she will consider selling her home and moving if the district continues with the plan.
Chelsie Looney is concerned with the commute, but also with the curriculum if her child is moved to Sugar Creek. Cooper is the only elementary school in the district that has adopted PE4Life, which means students gets a P.E. class every day.
"My son needs the activity every day in order to have a better chance concentrating and succeeding," she said. "We love this program."
Statistics, Looney said, show that PE4Life improves test scores and student performance. If her child is rezoned, she will pressure the new school to adopt the program, she said, but she would rather if there was no rezone.
"You're creating a lot of chaos in a child's world and it may not be necessary," she said.
Looney and McGinty both pointed out that Cooper is not full. There are only a small number of families in the far north area that will move into Cooper, and that many children could fit without moving anyone out, they said.
At last week's meeting, Poore said the district's goal is to have every child permanently placed in a school, but later he explained that the district may always have overflow students. Overflow students don't attend the school they are assigned to, but are bused to a different school. Poore said that because state standards limit class size, the district can't always hire a new teacher when a grade level at a specific school has one or two students over the standard size. Those students will have to be moved to a neighboring school. With the new zones in place, there will be fewer overflow students, he said.
The board members and parents heard about the zoning proposal at a pre-agenda meeting on Feb. 1 and, with kindergarten registration beginning Feb. 18, a vote on the zoning proposal is expected at the Feb. 16 meeting.
General News on 02/10/2016