By James Lomuscio
Westport’s Board of Education tonight nixed a plan for redistricting next year.
By a 7 to 0 vote, the board abandoned a “split-feeder” proposal that would separate Saugatuck Elementary School (SES) graduates into the town’s two middle schools.
The vote came after a number of parents had argued against redistricting, urging the school board at the special Town Hall meeting to scrap the plan steering SES graduates to both Coleytown Middle School (CMS), scheduled to reopen for the 2020-2021 academic year, and Bedford Middle School (BMS).
The rationale behind the split-feeder plan: rebalancing, finding parity in the wake of declining enrollments.
Parents countered they did not want their children split up from their friends.
Tonight’s vote also included having two four-teacher teams at CMS and three four-teacher teams at BMS.
The board’s decision came as no surprise as members agreed this was not the time for redistricting. Cited were budget uncertainties, a schools superintendent search underway and the $32 million renovated CMS.
At the previous board meeting, Candace Savin, school board chairwoman, expressed her commitment to traditional attendance zones for the next two years. Such a holding pattern had been suggested by school board members Youn Su Chao and Lee Goldstein.
However, SES parents tonight suggested doing away with the split-feeder program altogether.
“I urge you to consider taking it off the table permanently,” said Rebecca Oren, who has two children at Saugatuck.
She also asked the board to consider the option of Saugatuck parents sending their children to CMS “if they want to.”
To tackle declining enrollment, Oren also floated the idea of “a tuition option for children coming from outside the district, an easy way to financially make up the deficit we have.”
According to a New England School Development Council (NESDC) report presented at the last school board meeting, Westport’s student population is expected to decline by 600 students over the next five years.
Commenting on the board’s plan to hold off redistricting for two years, Sarin Cheung, SES PTA co-president, said, “I’d like to board to pause for three years or more to make better choices with better data.”
“And personally my brain is at mass capacity,” Cheung added. “I don’t think I can handle another scenario.”
SES parent Scott Wiener talked about the competing goals of having balanced class sizes and balanced numbers of students in each of the middle schools.
“It comes down to the principles on which you make decisions,” Wiener said. “I think we can address class size without the split feeder, which I am against.
“Split feeder is not one that should warrant any consideration,” he added.
The board agreed, for next year at least.
