THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607120463
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 85 lines
For hundreds of children in Elizabeth City and Pasquotank County, this will be the last year at their current school.
School boundaries tentatively have been redrawn to accommodate a new middle school and consolidation of two existing structures, part of a $20 million construction program.
Officials also hope the new boundaries will reduce overcrowding in some schools and restore racial balances at facilities that are now predominantly black or white.
``Few duties of local boards of education evoke more emotion and community interest than does pupil assignment,'' said Pat McDowell, chairman of an three-member ad hoc committee, reading from the 1997 Redistricting Report.
School board members Marion Harris and Peggy McPherson also served on the committee.
A public hearing on redistricting is scheduled for July 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Central Elementary School Multipurpose Room.
Maps of new zones for seven elementary schools and two middle schools will be displayed after Monday at the school administration building on Halstead Boulevard and at a satellite office at the Edgewood Center on Parkview Drive.
Written descriptions of the boundaries, which were not available at Wednesday night's special school board meeting, should also be ready for public review next week.
Among the major changes is the inclusion of River Road Middle School, now under construction. That facility is projected to enroll 728 students in grades 6 through 8, mainly from the southern portion of the city and county.
Elizabeth City Middle School also will initially hold 728 students. It currently contains 991 pupils in grades 7 and 8.
Racial compositions at both schools will be just about equal between black and white students, according to the report.
J.C. Sawyer Elementary School, which currently houses grades K through 3, will be combined with H.L. Trigg Elementary - its sister school for 4 through 6 - at an expanded J.C. Sawyer site.
Trigg, across from the Elizabeth City State University campus, will eventually be used for other school programs.The boundaries for Weeksville Elementary School in the south, Central Elementary School in the west and Northside Elementary School in the north will shrink under the proposal.
Those schools are in high-growth areas, and the new boundaries should provide more space for future students, McDowell said.
Pasquotank Elementary School in Elizabeth City will absorb some of the students from all three schools as its boundaries extend more westerly into the county.
Sheep-Harney Elementary School also will change significantly by taking in some of the students currently attending Northside.
P.W. Moore Elementary School will have its boundaries moved, though not to the extent of some other schools.
The realignment should provide additional space for 592 new elementary school students, according to this plan. The county's elementary school population annually averages 70 new students, or three additional classrooms.
``So if we continue on with that basis, it won't take long to fill up that extra space,'' McDowell said.
School board members also said the school system's transfer policy may need to be re-examined, especially if student migrations tip the ethnic balances that new zones have achieved.
``What we have now is not very specific and offers a lot of latitude,'' said Superintendent Joseph Peele.
Some 145 students annually transfer between different school zones, with another 30 to 40 children transfering into and out of the system.
If models hold true and current lines are approved, the white-to-black percentages of student populations should be 58.5 to 39.5 at Weeksville (compared with the current 72 to 27 percent), 41.4 to 57.8 percent at Sheep-Harney (compared with 36 to 63 percent) and 46.7 to 50.7 percent at Sawyer-Trigg (49 to 47 percent).
Other white-to-black percentage comparisons include 54.4 to 42.3 percent at Central (66 to 33 percent), 37.1 to 60.7 percent at P.W. Moore (29 to 70 percent), 63.3 and 36 percentat Northside (66 to 33 percent) and 44.6 to 53.8 percent at Pasquotank (33 to 66 percent).
Elizabeth City-Pasquotank school lines were last redrawn in 1990. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
SCHOOL PLAN
What: 1997-98 School Redistricting Plan Public Hearing.
When: 6:30 p.m., map viewing; 7:30 p.m., hearing on July 24.
Where: Central Elementary School Multipurpose Room.
Maps and written boundary descriptions of new school zones will be
displayed beginning next week at the school administration building
and satellite office at the Edgewood Center. by CNB