Rock Hill school district considers 3 rezoning options for elementary students

Some elementary students in the Rock Hill school district will likely call a new building “home” next year.

The Rock Hill Schools Board of Trustees explored multiple plans for rezoning hundreds of its elementary students for the 2021-22 academic year at a board meeting on Monday night.

Three rezoning options were discussed in detail. Each is designed to address how the district can consolidate its student bodies and thus better use the 17 sites currently used by the district as elementary schools.

“Tonight’s presentation is about options,” Rock Hill schools superintendent Bill Cook told the board and district staff, per a video recording of the Monday meeting. “The board asked for us to bring options to you to make sure we’re meeting the goals of the district.”

Here are the three proposed options the board discussed Monday. None of the options would require a reduction of staff, and none would require schools being over their respective capacities.

1. Repurposing Finley Road Elementary

Under this plan, which is the plan that affects the fewest students, all 308 students at Finley Road would be reassigned to new schools: Eight students would be sent to Ebenezer Avenue; 27 would be sent to Ebinport; 96 would be sent to Richmond Drive; 156 would be sent Sunset Park Center for Accelerated Studies; and 96 would be sent to York Road.

2. Option 1 + eliminating attendance satellites

This plan, in addition to reassigning all students at Finley Road Elementary, would eliminate “attendance satellites.” In other words, the plan removes pockets of attendance zones not contiguous with the primary school zone, so students are more likely to go to school where their neighbors attend.

This in turn would limit long bus rides and increase parental involvement, the presentation reads.

Eliminating attendance satellites effectively would disperse 566 students who are currently at the following schools: Old Pointe, Mt. Gallant, Rosewood, Ebinport and Ebenezer. (This means, in total, this plan affects 949 students.)

3. Option 1 + Option 2 + repurposing Rosewood Elementary

This option, in addition to reassigning students at Finley Road and eliminating attendance satellites, effectively rezones all 400 students at Rosewood: 214 students would be sent to Ebinport; 32 students would be sent to India Hook; and 154 would be sent to Northside.

Moving all of its students out of Rosewood would give the district the chance to repurpose one of the district’s “oldest and most expensive campuses to operate,” per the presentation.

This plan thus affects 1,349 students.

Why rezone?

Cook said the district is considering these rezoning plans because they each, to varying degrees, address the school district’s constellation of goals it has previously set forth.

What are some of those goals?

▪ Ensuring access to choice programs.

▪ Meeting facility needs. (“We have a lot of older, established buildings in our inventory, and (we need) to make sure we provide our students with 21st century environments,” Cook said.)

▪ Attracting families to the school district and maintaining positive relationships with families who are currently in the school district.

▪ Expanding its pre-kindergarten offerings.

As the board pointed out on Monday, reassigning students at Finley Road and/or Rosewood would allow the possibility for the district to combine and put under one roof all of its pre-kindergarten programs (except the program at Ebenezer Avenue, which is a Montessori program).

“We have a wonderful facility that is designated for Pre-K half-day programs at Central Child Development,” Cook said. “What we are looking at and for is having one designated place for students who are 4-year-olds and who would be able to — whether they are regular ed or special ed or whatever that need may be — to be in one location.”

What’s next?

The district is now tasked with gathering feedback from parents, staff and other stakeholders. You can contact your board members via email, as found on the district’s website. District staff will begin soliciting feedback from parents later this week.

The board could vote on this decision as early as its next meeting on Jan. 25, a spokesman confirmed to The Herald.

This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 10:09 AM.

Alex Zietlow

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.