New Clover school zoning attendance lines approved

Clover School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved new attendance zones to one student’s applause Monday night.

“I’m just happy I get to stay at Oakridge (Middle School),” said seventh-grader Autumn Huskey, who clapped following Superintendent Marc Sosne’s presentation to the board.

The new attendance lines are for the two new schools opening in the fall that were part of a $99 million construction package approved by voters in a March 2014 bond vote. The $30 million Oakridge Elementary School in Lake Wylie and $40 million Clover Middle on Barrett Road near Clover are both set to open in August.

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.

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

One of the goals, Sosne said, was to keep neighborhoods together and to redistribute student numbers to best utilize the space, defer having to build new schools and save taxpayers money.

The middle school lines raised the most the concerns. 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 during one of four public meetings held in the fall giving parents and the community opportunity to suggest alternatives.

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

Seventh-graders at Oakridge Middle, like Huskey, will be able to finish there, Sosne said, but parents will have to provide their own transportation. He said 50 students in that grade are affected. He wasn’t swayed to let lower grades continue at Oakridge Middle.

“We need to move enough students from Oakridge Middle School for better balance,” he said, because the current growth would max capacity there in about two years.

Both schools have capacity for 1,200 students. Currently, Clover Middle has 718 students, while Oakridge Middle has 987.

“I had to put a lot more kids in Clover Middle,” Sosne said. “When both of those schools near capacity, we’ll then plan for a new school.”

The downside to the plan brought up by parents, Sosne said, is the inconvenience of not being in a direct path to work in Charlotte and being farther away for some students currently going to Griggs.

Parents may request their child go to a different school than the one they are assigned assigned to by requesting an accommodations process.

“But in my opinion, this is the best plan for utilizing the space we’ve got,” he said.

Detailed maps are available at the school district website, go to http://clover.schoolwires.net/domain/1942.

This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 10:52 PM with the headline "New Clover school zoning attendance lines approved."