THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 3, 1995 TAG: 9503020175
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Parents, students and teachers showed up Tuesday night to address the School Board's proposed changes in attendance zones that would affect 11 schools and about 1,500 students.
First Colonial High students and parents gave a unanimous thumbs down to a plan to move kids from the south end of the Oceanfront, primarily the Croatan area, to Ocean Lakes High School.
Parents and residents of the Glenwood Community Association and Wyndamere neighborhood in the Glenwood Elementary zone, protested a proposal to shift 293 students into the boundaries for Rosemont Forest and Salem elementaries. The proposal was aimed at relieving crowding at Glenwood.
They presented a counter proposal that would not shift any students into Salem, but would move 415 students from different neighborhoods into Rosemont Forest. The alternate plan would do even more to relieve Glenwood, which has a capacity of 1,604 students but had an enrollment in January of nearly 2,000.
Parents from Rosemont Forest Elementary objected to the counter proposal, however, saying it would put their school over its 764-student capacity. As of January, Rosemont Forest had an enrollment of about 680. They supported school officials' original plan instead.
Parents from Blackwater supported a proposal to move their community, which has a little more than 60 students, from the North Landing Elementary zone to the Creeds Elementary zone. Creeds Elementary is in Pungo, which adjoins Blackwater.
Some parents from Creeds, however, protested that idea, saying it would push their tiny school over its 300-student capacity.
No one spoke about proposals to move about 80 students from Salem Elementary to Landstown Elementary, or to shift 177 students from Landstown Middle and 160 kids from Plaza Middle to the new Larkspur Middle, which is under capacity.
``The city of Virginia Beach has always taken pride in the concept of neighborhood schools,'' said Carol Lare, manager of the Glenwood Community Center, who pleaded with the School Board not to shift her neighborhood's kids into Rosemont Forest or Salem elementaries.
Joe Robertson, a First Colonial junior whose neighborhood would be shifted to Ocean Lakes, said the board should think about the students affected.
``We feel like a group of kids that can be shifted, traded and transferred anywhere in the city,'' he said.
The School Board plans to vote on the zone proposals March 21.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD by CNB