Rock Hill to unveil proposed changes in school choice programs

Superintendent Kelly Pew will unveil proposed changes for Rock Hill’s school choice programs Thursday at Sullivan Middle School.

Pew’s proposals have been developed by the district administration during months of discussion and with input from a school of choice committee of parents, teachers and community leaders. That panel began meeting in September.

The district has some good choice programs, Pew said, but a review has been needed for several years. Her recommendations will cover moving forward with the programs from kindergarten to grade 12.

“We are at a place now where we really want to get input from our stakeholders,” she said. “Teachers, parents, business leaders – whomever would like to give input.”

Rock Hill has seven elementary and two middle schools with choice programs. The special instructional programs – which have an application and admissions process – include foreign language immersion, the arts, International Baccalaureate and STEM programs, which cover science, technology, engineering and math.

Some of the issues include the continuity of programs from elementary through middle and high school, Pew said, and enrollment overcapacity at some schools, which has limited admission for students not zoned to attend that school.

For example, foreign language immersion programs offered at Ebinport, Richmond Drive and Rosewood elementary schools don’t continue in middle and high schools.

Another issue is making sure all children have an equal opportunity to be accepted into a choice program.

“We have schools with choice programs that are over capacity,” Pew said. “So, other than the neighborhood students who are going to those schools, there is not a lot of space for children from outside that zone to take advantage of that program.”

School bus transportation is another issue.

Under Rock Hill’s current school choice system, parents of students not zoned to attend a school with a choice program must get their children to and from that school.

“We say we offer choice,” district spokesman Mychal Frost said, “but do we really, if we don’t provide transportation, to make it truly accessible to students in a particular program?”

Minutes of the choice committee’s meetings show its members wrestled with a range of complex issues, including:

▪ Equal access to choice programs

▪ Higher transportation costs, if the district provides transportation to choice schools

▪ The potential need for school rezoning

▪ The impact of choice programs on student achievement levels

Pew will publicly unveil options for change for the first time at 6 p.m. Thursday at Sullivan Middle. She will present them to the Rock Hill school board during a Jan. 12 work session.

“I don’t know what the proposed changes are yet,” board chairman Jim Vining said. “I can’t tell you whether I like or support the changes, but I do like and support the discussion of developing a long-range plan for our choice programs.”

Vining agreed that the review of choice programs has been overdue.

“As a district, we’ve been pretty aggressive in offering different types of choice,” Vining said. “We probably have not been very aggressive in long-range planning, as to where we are going to go with those programs.”

Further school board discussions are expected in February, and a timeline posted on the district web site indicates a possible Feb. 22 school board vote on the proposed changes.

Rock Hill’s school choice application process usually takes place in the fall, Frost said, with a November choice fair and open enrollment for students in January and February.

Enrollment has been suspended this year, he said, until the school board decides on the direction of its choice programs.

School choice fairs for parents and students are scheduled for March 12 and 15.

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Rock Hill to unveil proposed changes in school choice programs."