THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607260446
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 90 lines
A major factor that pharmacist William Owens and his family considered before they bought a farmhouse in Nixonton was Weeksville Elementary School.
``We moved into rural Pasquotank County with the intention of my children attending a truly rural school,'' Owens told the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Board of Education Wednesday night.
If the current redistricting plan is approved for the 1997-98 school year, Owens's two children - and hundreds of other ``county kids'' - will find themselves being bused to more urban schools in Elizabeth City.
The proposed attendance zones, unveiled earlier this month by an ad hoc committee of school board members, are designed primarily to relieve overcrowding and restore ethnic balances in the system's elementary and middle schools.
A new redistricting policy also is being considered to ensure that demographics do not change considerably after a plan is in place.
Dramatic residential growth during the past decade in the 30-mile-long county has led to $20 million worth of school-construction projects that will shift student populations and increase schools' capacities.
The cornerstone of the plan is a new middle school on River Road. Once it opens, elementary schools will serve kindergarteners through fifth-graders. And sixth-graders will join seventh- and eighth-graders at one of two middle schools.
Northeastern High School will not be affected by these changes.
None of the 65 people who attended Wednesday's hour-long public hearing apparently disagreed with the districts created for the River Road and Elizabeth City middle schools.
Instead, most of the 15 parents and grandparents who spoke expressed their fears, concerns and frustrations with what the chairman of the redistricting committee acknowledged as gerrymandering.
``That's literally what's happening here,'' said W.P. ``Pat'' McDowell during his opening remarks. He had begun by reminding the audience that ``redistricting is always a difficult task for those who have to decide where the lines ought to be drawn.''
That mission is a particularly tough one in Pasquotank, which includes large rural areas as well the more densely populated Elizabeth City.
The district includes about 6,200 students. The proposed changes will affect 4,000 of them.
Of the speakers who came to the podium, a majority were parents of children attending Northside or Weeksville elementary schools.
More than a half-dozen lived in the Pinelakes subdivision, which will be rezoned from Northside to Sheep-Harney School under the new plan.
``You're taking rural kids - county people - and forcing theminto an urban environment where we do not want to send our children to school,'' said Michael McLain.
Parents from varied backgrounds - Coast Guard transplants, generations-old locals and former big-city dwellers - spoke of the ramifications redistricting could have on property values, family life and children's well-being.
``I'm really upset because I'm afraid it's going to hurt my child emotionally,'' said Renee Stallings of Pinelakes.
Teresa Lassiter's children in Weeksville will not be affected by the changes. But she worried about the effect longer bus rides would have on children who would have to leave home earlier and return later.
``What kind of future adults will we have that have been rushed through their childhood?'' Lassiter asked.
Some also questioned the motives behind the realignments.
The new populations will better reflect the entire city-county population, which is about equally black and white. But some parents wondered aloud if another goal was to improve test scores in some historically poor-performing city schools.
School end-of-year tests have taken on more importance since becoming a major measure of a district's performance under the state's new ABCs of Public Education program.
Some in the crowd, which applauded each speaker, said before and after the hearing that private schools and home schooling would become more popular if changes aren't made before maps are approved.
One woman did speak favorably of the plan.
During the last redistricting six years ago, Donna Rackley's children were moved from Central Elementary School to Pasquotank - even though they lived closer to Central, she said.
``I support what involves my neighborhood. I'm very pleased that my children will again be attending Central,'' said Rackley, who lives in Northeastern Terrace.
Others who spoke believed their children had little to gain by being removed from their current schools.
``We're not asking for segregated schools,'' Owens said. ``We're asking for you to keep the concept of neighborhood schools intact.''
Some parents questioned, both privately and publicly, if the realignments weren't already a done deal.
After the public comment session, school board chairman Marion Harris Jr. told the audience, ``It's not going to be an easy process. And we'll do what we can do.''
He later added, ``No plan is going to be perfect.'' by CNB