Parents raise issues about Clover school rezoning plan

Concerns about travel time, splitting friends and neighborhoods and moving students to a new school were raised by parents during a meeting on proposed changes in Clover school attendance zones.

Superintendent Marc Sosne told about 30 people on Nov. 12 at the Oakridge Middle School cafeteria that he welcomes suggestions for how to redraw attendance lines for two new schools opening in the fall.

The $30 million Oakridge Elementary in Lake Wylie and $40 million Clover Middle on Barrett Road near Clover are both slated to open in August.

The new schools were part of a $99 million construction package approved by voters in a March 2014 bond vote.

“This plan is the best I can come with right now,” Sosne said. “One of our goals is to affect the fewest number of students, and can create a plan to work into the future.”

The rezoning proposal addresses the fastest growing area of the district, at Lake Wylie area schools, which saw 7 percent growth in 2015. Schools on the western side of the Clover district had about 2 percent growth.

“As we build schools, we have to redistrict students to make sure it works,” he said.

Under the current proposal, students living on the north side of S.C. 49 and 557 corridor, such as Hamilton’s Bay and The Landing, would go to the new Oakridge Elementary School. Those south of that divider, such as the River Hills and Forest Oaks area, would attend Crowders Creek.

Jennifer Lewis, mother of a second-grader at Crowders Creek Elementary, isn’t happy with the atttendance zone split down Charlotte Highway. Under the new plan, her daughter will go to Oakridge Elementary.

“I haven’t signed my lease yet because of this,” she said. “It’s dividing friends up, and the education is excellent at Crowders.”

Sosne said the district also looks at goals of transportation routes.

“I can’t figure out a way to keep kids’ friends together,” Sosne said. “But it keeps neighborhoods together.”

One parent questioned why the proposed line divides the Tullamore neighborhood.

Ken Love, assistant superintendent for business services, said that neighborhood will stay together. He said the maps aren’t accurate because new roads have been built in neighborhoods since planning for the change began about a year ago.

Under the current middle school attendance zones, all students from Bethany, Kinard and Larne elementary schools attend Clover Middle. All students from Crowders Creek and Bethel elementary schools attend Oakridge Middle.

The proposed new middle school attendance zones calls for all Griggs Road students to attend Clover Middle, instead of the current split between Oakridge Middle and Clover Middle.

“On a positive side, kids in Griggs won’t be split after fifth grade but will stay together,” Sosne said.

The new middle school zone impacts about 150 students in the Griggs Road Elementary area.

Jason and Jennifer Lewis said they don’t want to see their daughter, a seventh-grader at Oakridge, have to finish her last year in middle school at a new school.

“It’d be nice if they’d let her stay for one last year,” Jennifer Lewis said.

Sosne said the district will be able to accommodate those students.

“We will allow them to finish eighth grade at Oakridge,” Sosne said. “But you’ll have to provide your own transportation.”

Sosne said any parent can request their child go to a different school.

“Parents who wish to go to a school other than the one to which they are assigned can request an accommodations process,” he said.

Serena Collyer, a junior at Clover High School, questions bus routing wait time. She said before she started driving herself to school this year, her bus commute time was about 90 minutes each way because she was the first one on and last one off the bus.

“Buses are already crowded and I don’t want it to get worse,” she said.

Jonathan Rudd, district transportation coordinator, said the school district is looking at a Three Tier program, which staggers school start times.

Sosne also addressed distance changes, for example from the Campbell’s Crossing area to the new Clover Middle School on Barrett Road, and issues parents raised about students getting to extracurricular activities after school.

Sosne said the Clover district covers 140 square miles. While parents on the east side of the district will have to travel farther to Clover Middle than Oakridge, residents on the farthest edge of the western line will be traveling about the same distance.

“It doesn’t make anyone getting moved feel better but there are a lot of kids in the district to consider,” Sosne said. “We really are trying to have a bird’s-eye view of the big picture.”

Another meeting was held earlier this month at Griggs Elementary, where about 60 parents attended.

Two more public meetings are planned.

Sosne said he expects present a final rezoning proposal to the school board for approval in January or February.

Detailed maps are available for viewing on the school district website and at affected schools. Email rezoning suggestions to Bryan.Dillon@clover.k12.sc.us.

This story was originally published November 16, 2015 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Parents raise issues about Clover school rezoning plan."